Great Expectations!

It has almost been one year

2010-11-30T18:02:00.001+08:00

Have not been updating this blog.
Took a visit here again and change the blog template and having a thought to revive this blog again.

I AM SORRY

2009-12-17T18:14:00.002+08:00

Dear Blog,

I am sorry that I have neglected you for such a long time.
It's coming to the end of the year and this is only on 5th post here.

What should I do??

Love

The Cat

2009-07-01T22:38:00.001+08:00

The Cat, originally uploaded by Caesda.

Treatment of the cat using Topaz Filter.

Spread the knowledge, not HIV!

2009-06-12T10:39:00.002+08:00

Help to educate and open many eyes to real, lifesaving information about HIV. Click on the following link:

http://www.vir.us/index.html?src=sc&email=chan.kok-kuen@sc.com

I WAS NOT ATTACKED BY MAT REMPIT

2009-06-12T07:56:00.009+08:00

I think I have to make this clear to all my friends and visitors to my blog.

I AM FINE and WAS NOT ATTACKED BY MAT REMPIT.

The story started in early April when a colleague of mine has received an e-mail where there is a story of a person being attacked by a group of Mat Rempit at Arena Green Condo at Bukit Jalil. As a result of the attack, I had slash wounds on my hand and leg and received 11 stitches on my knee cap where I was temporary immobilize.

At the bottom of the mail it was signed by:

Chan Kok Keun (my name was spelled wrongly)
Manager - Testing, UTG
Scope International(M) Sdn.Bhd
(With my office phone number here)

My colleague has seen me in office in perfect health and was walking about happily and was surprised by the mail. He wanted to confirm whether the mail was true.

I was shocked, surprised and angry when the mail was sent to me for my viewing. In my mind, who would do such a thing to me in spreading such a mail where it was signed by me.

I analyzed the mail and my conclusion was:

Someone took an April Fool's template of the same story with the sign-off using my name, designation, company name and office phone number.
Changed the date of the incident.
Created an email account which I guessed is Hotmail. There was a caption at the end of the mail to indicate that the mail originated from Hotmail.
Sent out the mail to people who are working in Scope International.

The mail was subsequently forwarded by various staff at Scope at Technology Park where Arena Green Condo is located just outside the main entrance and many staff are staying there. The main was later forwarded to staff at Menara Standard Chartered and subsequently the whole of Malaysia and the world.

When I got the mail, I quickly made a call to the person who last forwarded the email to check where the source of the mail was from. By that time, the mail has been forwarded so many times, that I am unable to trace back to source. I quickly reminded the person who has forwarded the mail that the mail was a hoax and the incident did not happen. At the same time, I requested that the sender remind the recipients of mail that they have forwarded to of the same.

There were phone calls made to my office phone to:

Offer their sympathy of my "predicament"/"tragedy"
Verify whether the story was true
NST reporter who wanted to do a story on Mat Rempit and wanted more details of the "incident"
Blogger who also wanted to put up the story.

All of the above happened in the month of April.

To inform my friends, I posted the warning and reminder in Facebook that the mail was a hoax and requested them not to forward the mail. Since, I have been active in Facebook, only my friends in Facebook managed to read the post.

On Tuesday (9 June), my friend Pauline Goh from Public Bank called me while I was driving out for my lunch to ask me whether I am fine. I laughed loudly and I knew that she would have read the hoax mail only then. Later on, I got a call from Darshini and after that I got a call from Ong Ming Teck who has just landed at the airport from Phnom Penh. He also asked how I am and to verify the story.

After getting the calls, I started to think to how damage has been done by that hoax mail. I then Googled a search "Mat Rempit Chan Kok Keun" and found 4 blogs which ran the "story".

Today, I thought that it would be good to write this information down in my blog to inform all my friends that the "attck" never happen, and that I am in good shape and health.

Here's a photo taken of me end of May during my trip to Kellie's Castle to prove that I am fine:

My Photo appeared in NowPublic - 9 Feb 2009

2009-02-10T19:42:00.005+08:00

Yesterday (9 Feb) marked the last day of the 15 days Chinese New Year celebrations. The full full appears and it was the first penumbral lunar eclipse for 2009. Getting the news from the local paers, I got my camera all set up to shoot this event.

Well, I was informed that it was not actually a full eclipse. It was just like the moon just grazing off the shadow of the earth. The change in the light could not actually be seen by the eyes but by light meter.

Nevertheless, I managed to have some good shots of the moon. I uploaded the last photo I shot before the dark clouds rolled in.

In the morning when I check my Flickr mail inbox and found a request to have my photo to be featured in their article in NowPublic.
NowPublic is a user-generated social news website. The company is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and was founded by Michael Tippett, Leonard Brody and Michael Meyers in 2005. In addition to content contributed by users, NowPublic has a content-sharing agreement with the Associated Press. (Source Wikipedia) One of the article was on the pnumbral lunar eclipse that is was observed through the world.

Without hesitation, I agree to have my photo to be available in their article.

You can visit the article via this link. Scroll the 4th photo and you will see this photo.

Well it's coming to the year end

2008-12-21T19:24:00.004+08:00

My lasting posting was on 16 October, that more than 2 months ago. Well, the thrill of blogging has left me and I am more on updating my status in Facebook. Many of my friends have migrated to Facebook and along the way I have added a few friends that were linked to my other friends.

Why Facebook?
Well for starter, its easier to update where I can update my status on a real-time basis and my friends would be able to know how am I, how's my mood and other things that I would want to announce. At the same time , my friends can comment on my status.

I have been busy on almost every weekend going out for photo shooting. Its because I have bought myself a new camera, the D300 in September. I have been enjoying the camera very much. My older camera the D70s is still with me and I use it sparingly.

Once the photos are shot, I will do the post production of the photos, meaning some editing and conversion of the shot before I upload it to Facebook and also my Flickr album.

So these two sites (Facebook and Flickr) have been keeping me occupied where I have almost stopped blogging.

SInce the year is ending soon (and also my feeling of guilt on not updating my blog), I decided to write some thoughts here before the year 2008 comes to an end.

For starter, the sudden change in the world economic climate and the clear signs of recession all over the world especially in the US and Europe it has did some changed to my work. Projects started to be kept on hold, budget slashed, travelling overseas were slashed, and worst off.. another restructing in my group. Well I do not want to dwell too much into the restructing because it would be a long story and it would confused you. In the nut shell, the team that I lead will be reporting to some where and some one else. In a span of 2 years, I have changed my reporting line twice and the next change will be 2009.

Bonus payment for next year is in doubt of out of the question and the same goes for salary increment. I felt that this is unfair because the organisation has been doing well for the first half of 2008 and it was only in the 3rd quatter where the economic crisis emerged. I think that the organisation is jumping on the bandwagon like the rest of the other banks of the world in slashing down the benefits, salary and maybe also retrechment of staff. Time for them to weed out the non performers and put in cheaper fresh staff.

Well, I will be keeping my head out high on the look out for opportunity if the situation in my organisation does not favour me. For those who are reading this blog, please assist to inform me should there be a vacancy that is attractive and would suit me. My e-mail is listed in my profile.

Shares prices in the KL Stock Exhange has tumbled more than 30%, it does not help much in the equity value of the shares and mutual funds that I am holding.

On the happier side.. Christmas is coming in a few days time.. but the Chinese New Year would be celebrate in another one month's time. It's the time that I find it not so enjoyable where more fund is required to buy new cloths for the children, more funds need to buy Chinese New Year stuff and most of all.. more funds need to put into the Hong Pow.

Well, I beleive that what goes up will come down and now we are on the down side. The climbing up would not be in 2009 but hopefully things would recover and look brighther by 2010.

In the mean time, I would still have to work and survive to ensure that my debts are paid and the welfare of my children and my family are taken care of.

It's a bad note to end the year 2008 but in the end I would still have to say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Wonderful view from Lookout Point

2008-10-16T22:22:00.007+08:00

Ever have the chance to see how the night aerial view of Kuala Lumpur looks like? Well you can do that by taking a plane or a helicopter. But there is a easier and cheaper way to do that. Head on to Lookout Point.

Lookout point is located in between Ampang and Hulu Langat area right on top on some hills. There is a purpose built platform and also three restaurants there to entertain the people with the view of Kuala Lumpur while they chit chat, dine and drink.

Well I have seen some photos taken of the place and have wanted to go there. My children and I decided to head on to Lookout Point. I drove to Batu 9 Cheras taking the Hulu Langat way and making a right turn towards Ampang before I reach Lookout Point. You will not miss the place because it was a Saturday and there were so many cars parked at the foothills. We have to park our car quite a distance from the road leading up the hill.

Reaching there, we head on to the look out platform where I mounted my camera on my tripod to shoot the spectacular night view of Kuala Lumpur. We can see the stretch from PJ to Ampang and in the middle the KL Tower and KLCC were the prominent buildings.

Well here are some shots of it plus a panorama stich of 4 photos to cover the view which we can actually see from end to end.

To see larger size of the photos, please visit my Flickr album.

A panoramic view of Kuala Lumpur which is stitched from 4 photos. Click on it to see a larger view. I like this panorama view so much that I have made it my blog banner.

It's already October

2008-10-09T10:54:00.002+08:00

I feel that the trend of posting in blog has eroded in me. I did a comparison of the number of posting I did this year and that of last year.. well its very obvious.. I have not been writing as often as I did last year.

My attention of writing in my blog has shifted to posting of photos in my Flickr album. That means my interest has changed from writing blogs to photo editing and posting. As they say, a picture paints a thousand words so its easier for me to shoot my photos that to write more words.

My Year Book Photos

2008-09-09T21:04:00.005+08:00

I managed to stumble upon some pictures posted by some friends on Facebook. The photos were images of their face in their school year book looks ranging from 1950 to 2000. I thought I also have a try at the site www.yearbookyourself.com and here are the results:

I had a nice laugh at the photos done. If you want to see each picture individually, head on to my Flickr Album.

MIFC Finale - 29 August 2008

2008-09-02T23:39:00.004+08:00

I would like apologize that it took longer to post these photos that I shot during the Malaysian International Fire Works finale which was on 29 August 2008. Actually, all the shots are already been uploaded to my Flickr site and I have chosen some to be placed here for those who do not visit my Flickr album.

How engage are you to your company?

2008-09-02T22:38:00.004+08:00

Today I made a phone call to my former colleague to discuss about some happenings. He then said "Hey write something in your blog lah.. it has been along time since I am able to read your posting". I told him that I did not have much to write about nowadays other than posting some photos which I shot and want to share it with them. I told him I do not want to write anything about politics or else I will end up being sued or even worse remand for sedition or write nonsense.
"Write something lah, maybe something that we have chat about today. I really would love to read your posting in your blog" he said.

OK, ok, since he has requested I would like to write that we have chat about today.

Today I called him to talk about the sudden resignation of 4 persons. These 4 persons tendered their resignation within 24 hours and have moved on to another organization. From my sources, the four of them are joining the new organization which have been granted to set up a new commercial bank in Cambodia. The license to operate the commercial bank was granted in late April and the condition is that the bank is to commence on or before 31 October 2008. That's six months from the date the banking license was granted.

These 4 persons who had tendered their resignation have been with the bank for more than 20 years each (except for one of them).

I looked back from the day I left my former organization, there have been numerous people who had served the organization for a long time have left and joined other organization. Like me, some of them had served the company for more than 20 years, still they would leave to seek greener pasture. For better or worse, they would be happy in their new organization currently, just like me.

On the other hand, there have been many who have promotions. Those who choose to stay do get promoted maybe due to their work performance or...I better not say anything or else some people might get offended (the consequences may be worse than being sued).

In my current organization, we have an annual survey that we need to do. It's called the Q12. It is a set of 12 questions that was invented by The Gallup Organization (a famous consulting company) after their study of why successful people work in successful companies. The Q12 is a measurement of how engage a staff is to the company. See the word "engage".

Basically, the 12 questions are based on the basic of principles of management which is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The respondent (in this case the employee) will make from a rank of 1 to 5 which is from strongly disagree to strong agree to the following questions:

I know what is expected of me at work.
I have the material and equipment I need to do my job right.
At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do do best every day.
In the past seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good job.
My superior, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
There is someone at work who encourages my development.
At work, my opinion seems to count.
The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.
My associates, or fellow employees are committed to do quality work.
I have a best friend at work.
In the past six months, someone at work has talked to me to me about my progress.
This last year, I have had the opportunities at work to learn and grow.

Compare the above question to the diagram of Maslow's Hierarchy of Need below and you could relate each question to each level of the hierarchy.
You can read more of Q12 by Gallup by clicking on this link.

The result of the survey links up from the employee to their respective superior or supervisor and ultimately to the organization. The survey provide vital information on how "engage" an employee is and at the same time for the employer to take the appropriate action to improve on any laxity in its policies or benefits to ensure that the staff are well taken care of.

However, some dis grunted employee may use the survey to "get back" at their superior or supervisor.

I would stop here to let you ponder on the above.
Please do write your comments about this posting.

Malaysian International Fireworks Competition 2008

2008-08-17T19:38:00.004+08:00

The Malaysia International Fireworks Competition 2008 is back again. This the second year that this event is held. The first event started last Thursday with the host nation being the first competitor. Last year, I attended all the events but this year I was hesitant to attend the event after having learned a bitter lesson of being caught in the traffic jam for more than 3 hours after the event. Another reason is that it was held on a week day where I need to get out from my office early to head to Putrajaya where the event was held.

After reading discussion forum from the members of a photography site, where it was mentioned that there traffic condition has since been much improved, I decided to head for the event on Saturday where Team China was in line for the competition. My children did not want to follow me because I would leave my house at 5.00 p.m. to get a nice spot to put up my gears to shoot the event.

So I drove off from my house and reached Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC). At the entrance I was directed to head to the public car park where there are coached there to ferry the public to PICC. I parked my car at the carpark and there were already more than 5 coches on stand-by to ferry the attendeess to PICC.

I hoped on the bus and off I go to PICC. I was very early but there are people who are earlier than me. Tripods have been placed at the balcony area aiming towards the fireworks set-off site. I managed to make friends with a few of the photographers who were like me being early there to shoot the event.

Initially the event was scheduled for 9.30 p.m. ut I was informed that the event has been pushed to 10.00 p.m.. That means I have to wait for 4 hours before I can start to shoot the event. That does not bother me because time flies fast where more and more people arrived and were standing behind me.

The competition started right on the dot at 10.00 p.m. and the fireworks ended within 20 minutes. Immediately when the competition was over, I packed my gear and hop on to the coach which was already waiting and was ferried back to the public parking area. There were so many cars and the roads were packed jam with them.

This time around I was impressed. The traffic managed to move smoothly out of Putrajaya to Kuala Lumpur and I managed to return home before midnight.

The next even will be on 20 August by Team Canada.. I am still undecided where to go or not.

Here are some of the shots and more are available in my Flickr Album and also my Facebook.

Meeting up with old friends

2008-08-16T19:59:00.000+08:00

My former colleagues from my former company were all down in Kuala Lumpur to attend their bi-annual management seminar. I had the opportunity to meet up with them and also had dinner and some drinking (fruit juice) session with them

I felt happy that I am still remembered by them especially when they were from outstation like JB, Penang, Sabah and Sarawak. That goes to show that the relationship and friendship that has been fostered with throught my years with them in my former organization has been appreciated.

Hopefully, this gathering can go on for the next few year. I know that as times goes by many of them would not remember which would be the natural course of life!!

Shooting at fashion shows over the week end

2008-08-10T20:43:00.004+08:00

I managed to shoot three events over the the weekend.

On Saturday I was at Berjaya Times Square where the Fashion Fusion event was held. It started out with the presentation of the hair and make-up by the students pf APT Professional Team. The contestants were all dress and make up like .. how should I put it.. OUT OF THIS WORLD.. design and colours!! Here are some of the shots.

Then, I hop over to Sungai Wang where a more interesting event was happening. Its the Sloggi ( you know what is Sloggi?) Art of Humanity event was held. It's a body paint compettion where the model would wear a bra by Sloggi but their body are painted by the contestant from various graphic designer schools like One Academy and even TAR college. The event drew many people.. what else is new when you can get to see models walking around in their bra for free. Here are some juicy shots.

Today, I went to Berjaya Times Square again to attend the second fashion show of the day which starts at 4.00 p.m. The fashion show was done by Sembonia, makes of ladies handbags. Here are some shots for viewing.

More photos can be view from my Flickr Album.

08.08.08

2008-08-08T19:57:00.003+08:00

Today marks another historical day, the eight day of the eighth month of the eighth year of the 21st century or simply 08.08.08.

Not only we have have reached to such a lovely date of the year, eight has been regarded as a Chinese auspicious number, which means prosperous.

Today also marks the start of the summer Olympics in Beiing. As I am writing this posting, I am watching the opening ceremony being shown live over the TV. The opening ceremony at the "Bird Nest" stadium starts also at 8.00 p.m. Beijing time.

Macro shoot out

2008-08-03T16:23:00.008+08:00

For the past week I have been impressed by the macro photos taken by the members in a photography forum group. Objects, plants, flowers and insects shot in macro looks lovely. At the same time it takes good patience and techniques to be able to get a good macro shot.

I was interested in taking some macro shots since it would be a great thing to venture into apart from my usual events and casual photography (and also my current passion - HDR). The only thing stopping me to start macro shooting is to get a macro lens. A good macro lens will set me back at least Rm1,500.00 and I am currently not in a spending mood. I came to know that some of the forum members used a macro attachment made by a Japanese company called Raynox and the macro attachment used is a DCR250. I managed to come across a posting selling a used unit for RM200.00 but by the time I managed to contact the seller, he told me that the unit has been booked.

Only Saturday morning I managed to find another forum member who is selling the attachment, new unit. I SMS him to check out the price and his quotation was RM260.00 where I find the price reasonable (ShaShinki is selling the unit for RM280.00). We met up at USJ and I bought the unit from him.

Reached home, I quickly attach the unit on to my lens to experiment it by shooting the plants at my house. My son was also interested in what I was doing and he also got hooked in shooting the stuff around the garden using the macro attachment.

Today (Sunday) we decided to try some macro shooting at the Butterfly park. Before that we were to the National Monument because I have never taken my son there (12 years since he was born). He was curious how the National Monument looks like. Took some shots of the monument and then we took some macro shot of the flowers at the surrounding areas of the National Monument. The shots are posted below while the bigger versions of the shots can be seen at my photo blog and also at my Flickr Album.

The we drove over to the Butterfly park. There was already some foreign tourist lining up to get their entrance tickets. I looked at the price listing and I was shocked by the cost the of the entrance ticket - Adult RM18.00 Child below 12 years -RM8.00. It will cost me a total of RM27-00 (RM1-00 for my camera) for entrance fee. I felt that the price is too expensive and I told my son, we will not go in today. Wait till me have enough practice using the macro attachment before we go back there.

We then went back home to process the photos that we have taken.

PC Fair is in town again

2008-08-03T09:40:00.007+08:00

I still do not understand why people flock to PC Fairs to buy their computer stuff. I went to the P Fair at KLCC yesterday. It was not my plan to go there but my daughter has requested me to go there. I said Ok provided we go there by using the LRT. So off we go, my daughter, my son and I.

Guess what? There were so many people at the LRT station at Tasik Selatan were waiting at the station. Then we got off at Masjid Jamek, another surprise, the train was packed with people. Those embarking are carrying plastic bags with big boxes inside and some even came with their shopping trolley where they have bought desktop computers and printers/scanners. Once we reached the KLCC station and got out.. there were long streams of people walking to and from the Suria, KLCC to the station. It was not only people coming for the PC Fair but also people coming in for the Mega Sales especially many people are going to Isetan where there were lots of bargains!!

OK, I can understand the number of people at Suria KLCC. Then we have to walk to the Convention Center where the PC Fair was.. that again another long stream of people. People and people everywhere and we ended on Level 5 where all the "bargains" were located.

My daughter bought the M2 memory card to be placed in her handphone. The phone only came with a 128MB card and she wanted a bigger card to store her photos, music and other stuff. Me? well I bought a wireless mouse. I just got a new docking station for my notebook in office and USD ports are located on the left side where I am a right hander. The handling of the mouse to my notebook is not to comfortable so I opted to get a wireless mouse while the current wired mouse would be passed to my daughter's use.

Guess what? I bought a Logitech V450 Nano Cordless Laser Mouse for RM138 which would cost the same if I would should buy it at Low Yat on a non PC Fair day. I was not surprised!!

Here a picture of the mouse:I like the mouse, it's very sensitive, nicely sculptured and ergonomically friendly.. cut the jazz.. I like it because I wasted my effort, time, sweat and RM138 to get it!!

New Photo Blog

2008-07-20T18:10:00.003+08:00

I have just created a new Photo Blog called "Caesda Photos". This blog will be used to feature all my favorite photos which I have shot in large format. The photos are also available at my Flickr Album but you will need to click on the large image to see the details of the photos.

I hope you would enjoy the my new blog. Click here to navigate to the new blog.

High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography

2008-07-19T13:09:00.009+08:00

The image of my blog header is a picture of the scenery of Sam Rai Yot in HDR mode. HDR or High Dynamic Range imaging is a form of photography which is a technique that allows greater dynamic range of exposures between light and dark area of a photograph. The intention of the technique is to represent the wide ranges of intensity of an image during a shot.

I have been enjoying myself taking HDR images when I first learn about it. HDR imgaes can easily be done by using a DSLR with bracketing functions. Three or more continous shots of different intensity is done. Using the sofwares of Photomatix and Photoshop, the three shots are combined to form the HDR images. The result of the combination is that the colour ranges of the shot are really "blown out". The photo can be views as though it is shot in a 3-D mode. Here are some examples of HDR shots that have been done by me.

1. Ferris-Wheel HDR, 2. PICC HDR, 3. Hawker Association Building HDR, 4. The Bund - HDR, 5. The Clock Tower, 6. Seri Wawasan, 7. Seri Saujana, 8. Thean-Hou_5 - Phoenix 1, 9. Thean-Hou_5 - Dragon 2, 10. Thean-Hou_4 - Dragon 1, 11. Thean-Hou_3, 12. Thean-Hou_2, 13. Thean-Hou_1, 14. Glow of the Egyptian Call, 15. SH_HDR_001, 16. SH_HDR_001, 17. SH_HDR_002, 18. SH_HDR_003, 19. SH_HDR_004, 20. SH_HDR_006, 21. SH_HDR_007, 22. SH_HDR_008, 23. SH_HDR_009, 24. SH_HDR_010, 25. SH_HDR_012, 26. PDG_HRD_001, 27. PDG_HRD_002, 28. PDG_HRD_003, 29. PDG_HRD_005, 30. PDG_HRD_006, 31. PDG_HRD_004_1, 32. Kemanan HDR, 33. Shells HDR, 34. Temenggong Lake HDR_1, 35. Temenggong Lake HDR_2, 36. Phoenix_HDR

Layout changes

2008-07-19T12:32:00.003+08:00

Time for a renovation of the layout of my blog. The previous layout has since been introduced since a year a go.

This time around I have changed the image of the header to the scenery of Sam Roi Yot which I shot during my trip to Thailand in December 2007. Some font and background colour changes.

Hope you like it!!

Best wishes!!

2008-07-13T23:54:00.004+08:00

Just want to add some photos of the lovely bride:

The Wedding of Demudu and Shim Yew Moi

2008-07-13T08:52:00.010+08:00

On 7 July, I got a mail from Shim, who was my former colleague/staff in Public Bank attaching with three image files. The e-mails reads:

"Boss Boss……. ; ) ooops…..am getting married! Sent u an e-card, if you prefer to receive by hand, let me know k! Come n snap photos ler"

This is the first time that I have seen her in other dressing other than in a pair of pants

I was surprised when I opened up the attached to find out that the bridegroom if also one of my former colleague/staff Demudu. Why did I say surprise? I did not know that they were dating each other previously because I have not seen them together. At the same time, both their characters are different. Anyway, I am happy that they both have found each other, went through the courtship period and now its time to get married.

The wedding was held at the Sri Moogambigai Temple which was the temple which was "saved" from demolition with the developement of the Mid-Valley Shopping Complex. The temple was tucked away just outside the complex and is very popular with the local Indians.

Many of my former colleagues were invited to attend the wedding ceremony and I am happy to be able to meet up with them and chat with them. Most of my time spent at the cewremony was snapping away photos with my camera. At the end of the 2 hours ceremony, I have shot over 400 shoots.

All the photos are available for viewing at my Picasa Web Album(389 images) - just clik on the link or at my Flickr Album.

The lovely bride

Well I want to thank both Demudu and Shim who have invited me for their wedding ceremony and dinner.

Wishing both of you all the happiness as a new couple!!!

Firefox 3 - Most number of software download in 24 hours

2008-07-03T19:11:00.002+08:00

Firefox 3 managed to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. With my help, I am one of them who have contributed to the record of 8,002,530 downloads. To honour me, I was awarded with a Certificate for my contribution. Here is it:

D700 is launched today

2008-07-01T21:35:00.004+08:00

Even before I could get my hand on my own dream camera, the Nikon D300, D700 is launched today. Well the news of the the emergence of the D700 was around since a month ago. So it is perhaps the worst kept secret.

Anyway, the new D700 is actually a D300 with large FX sensor like the D3 which makes the D700 a full frame D300.

Would I get the D700? Well I guess no. Why? Because it is actually a full frame D300 where all the features of the D300 are present with the ability to shoot full frame. I am not a professional photographer and is not planning to be one to use a full frame camera. The price of 0f the D700 would cost between the D300 and D3 which is between Rm5,500 to RM15,000. The price I would guess would be around RM9,500-00 considering the price quoted in USD is USD2,995.00.

Well, I would not write much about it when you read more of it from Ken Rockwell. Follow this link.

Super GT Race in Sepang

2008-06-26T22:32:00.009+08:00

I think I am rather late in posting this. The event happen on Sunday, 22 June 2008. Well, one of my colleague had bought his ticket to attend the Japan Super GT at Sepang on Saturday and Sunday. He was accompanying his friends who were there to shoot the Race Queens of the Super GT and the Super GT cars too. He told me that that he would be going on Saturday and may not go on Sunday. I did not choose to join him because the cost of the ticket was rather high and I had an appointment to attend a clean-up exercise at Ulu Yam with my other colleagues.

On Sunday, I called him to check out whether he would be going for the Super GT and I was trying my luck just in case he do not want to go, I will take his ticket to see whether I can shot some photos of the Race Queens and the cars. Sadly, he told me that he enjoyed himself on Saturday and his friends had invited him to go to Sepang again on Sunday. He then told me me how exciting it was and I even saw some of the Race Queens photos he had posted in his Facebook.

I hesitated and changed my mind to go to Sepang for the photo shoot. I invited my son to join me and my daughter, Carrie over heard my invitation to his brother. She said that she would want to join me. Hearing that his sister will be going for the event, he changed his mind and also want to come along.

I grabbed by camera equipment bag and we were on our way to Sepang International F1 circuit to attend the Super GT. Nearing to the circuit there were many cars which were also heading the same way as I am. Parked the car and headed to the ticket counter.

Guess what? The cost of tickets was EXPENSIVE!! Ticket to the Grandstand cost RM150-00 each, luckily, Carrie brought along her student card and managed to get a discount on the cost of the ticket to RM75-00, another RM75 goes to the ticket for my son.

Then, the cost of the entrance to the Pit Walk where the Race Queens and the GT cars will be parked at the pit stops. That ticket will cost RM100-00 each. I thought of just buying one Pit Walk ticket while my son and daughter would wait for me at the Grandstand. Both of them were reluctant and wanted to go for the Pit Walk too. Wow.. there goes another RM300-00. Altogether, I have to foot out a total of RM500-00 for 3 Grandstand tickets and 3 Pit Walk tickets.

Off we go into the Grandstand where at the entrance was the Nissan stand. There were a few units of Nissan Fairlady and some GTRs. Nice, good looking and fast.. I LIKE IT!!

Then the time came to go down the tunnel from the Grandstand area to the pit stop. I was surprise and amazed by the number of people that have bought the Pit Walk ticket all carrying their cameras to shoot the cars and queens!!!

Once the gate of to the pit stop was opened, all of us (me and the rest of the people that are holding cameras) rushed to the pit stop where the Race Queens were there waiting to greet us. They were standing in front of the GT cars waving, smiling, posing, carrying their umbrella while all of us rushed to snap their photos. It was a mad, mad rush where I needed to pushed into other people sweating and smelly bodies to be able to get a nice angle to shoot the Race Queens. There were instances where I have even crawled my way under these people just to be as near and close to get nice shots of the Race Queens.

The result.. spectacular as you can see from the photos of the below.

After the Pit Walk session (which lasted for 40 minutes) we all have to get back to the Grandstand to get ready for the start of the feature races and the Super GT race. The first feature race was the Aston Martin race and the second was the Formula V6 (F1 wannabe cars).

Then at about 3.50 p.m. all the Race Queens were lead out on to the track and the GT cars were all fired up. The GT cars left the pit stop and took a warm-up lap around the circuit and came back to the Start/Finish line where the respective Race Queens were standing. Another round of photo session took place, this time it was called the Photo Safari (which cost another RM100), where the photographers are allowed to be on the track snapping away the cars and the Race Queens while they were "parked" on the track.

After, the Super GT race event started in a rolling start, there were so many cars which I could not count and I do not know who are the drivers and their teams. The engine sound was loud and ear piercing. Took some photos of the GT cars and I decided to go home since we did not have lunch at the circuit due to the exorbitant cost of food at the circuit. We left the circuit at about 4 p.m. where the race was scheduled to end at almost 7.00 p.m.

It has been an experience attending the race firstly because it has been the most expensive event that I have ever paid and secondly I was able to shot those Race Queens who if they did not come to Malaysia, I would have to go to Japan to have to chance to shoot them.

Here are the photos of the Race Queens that have the most number of views at my Flickr Photo Album:

Photo shoot at Maju Junction

2008-06-17T22:28:00.007+08:00

A "photo week" was held at Maju Juntion from 12 June to 15 June 2008. The event was held by some photographer school, photographers and some photographic supplies. I only found out about the event when I saw some photos posted by my friend SooHK.

After checking out the events that would be held, I went over to Maju Junction on Sunday (Father's Day) to see what I can shoot.

There was a model shoot contest and there was also opportunity for the attendees to try to shoot some models using professional lighting system and backdrop.

I managed to shoot some photos of some Malays models which I will post it here. For more photos, please visit my Flickr Album.

I hope that these photos will be enjoyed by my Malay readers and friends (especially Mazhar!!)

Fuel Subsidy

2008-06-12T22:55:00.004+08:00

As you are aware the price of petrol went up and up by a whopping 78 sens a litre. From Rm1.92 the new price was RM2.70. I posted my comments when the price of petrol went up by 30 sens (follow this link). The cost of my car's full tank was RM100, with the increased in fuel price, the cost a tank full has gone up to RM140.00.

The impact.. prices of everything also went up and up.

I received an e-mail on the issue of fuel subsidy. Have a read and judge it for yourself:

Petrol Subsidies

WHAT IS NEVER MENTIONED IN Mainstream Media like
NST/TheStar/Utusan/BH are these facts....

Malaysian PerCapita Income USD 5000

VS

Singaporean PerCapita Income USD 25000

Further The Star made a comparison of prices in Thailand , Singapore and Indonesia.

For Thailand it is quoted at RM3.90/liter, however are they aware that in Thailand new cars are cheaper than Malaysia by RM10,000? They pay only one life time for their driving license? No renewal fee after that? Also that goes for road tax as well? And do The Star also aware that you can drive all the way from Hadtyai to Bangkok on a six lane highway without paying any Tolls ??!!

Whereas here in Malaysia you have to pay yearly renewal for road tax, driving license and TOLLS, TOLLS, TOLLS!!!

For Singapore how can you quote RM 5.20 ? Please quote in Singapore Dollars because they are earning in Sing Dollars. You might as well say Europeans are paying RM10/liter. RM5.20/liter = Sing $ 2.20/liter, still cheaper than Malaysia in view of fact that Singapore is not a crude oil exporter. Are you saying that you fill up petrol in Singapore by paying Ringgit?

In economy, dollar to dollar must be compared as apple to apple. Not comparing like durian in M'sia is much cheaper than durian in Japan!! Of course-lah, Japan is not durian producer!!! Comparing Malaysian durian with Thailand durian make more sense!!

For Indonesia we might say is cheaper there at RM2.07/liter but compare that to their level of income!

Now, let us compare the price with OIL PRODUCING countries:

UAE - RM1.19/litre
Eygpt - RM1.03/litre
Bahrain - RM0.87/litre
Qatar - RM0.68/litre
Kuwait - RM0.67/litre
Saudi Arabia - RM0.38/litre
Iran - RM0.35/litre
Nigeria - RM0.32/litre
Turkmenistan - RM0.25/litre
Venezuela - RM0.16/litre
MALAYSIA - RM2.70/litre

RM 2.70!!! Individual perspective:

As of last month a Toyota Vios would 'cause a damage' of about RM 89,000.
In the international market, a Toyota Vios is about USD19,000

USD 19,000 = RM 62,700 (using the indicative rates of USD 1 = RM 3.30)
That makes Malaysian Vios owners pay an extra RM 26,300.
This RM 26,300 should be cost of operations, profit and tax because the transportation costs have been factored in to the USD19,000.

RM 26,300/ RM625 petrol rebate per year translates to a Vios being used for
42.08 years.

I do understand that the RM 625 is a rebate given by the government, but it
also means that one has to use the Vios for 42.08 years just to make back the
amount paid in taxes for the usage of a foreign car. Would anyone use any kind of
car for that long?

Now with these numbers in front of us, does the subsidy sound like a subsidy
or does it sound like a penalty? This just seems to be a heavy increment in our
daily cost of living as we are not only charged with high car taxes but also with
a drastic increase in fuel price.

With all the numbers listed out, I urge all Malaysians to join me in analyzing the
situation further.

Car taxation is government profit, fuel sales is Petronas' (GLC) profit which also
translates into government profit. The government may ridicule us Malaysians
by saying look at the world market and fuel price world wide.
Please, we are Malaysians, we fought of the British, had a international
port in the early centuries (Malacca), home to a racially mixed nation and WE
ARE NOT STUPID!!!

We know the international rates are above the USD130/barrel. We understand
the fact that the fuel prices are increasing worldwide and we also know that
major scientist are still contradicting on why this phenomenon is happening. Some
blame Bush and his plunders around the world and some blame climate change and
there are others which say petroleum 'wells' are getting scarce.

Again we go back to numbers to be more straight forward
1 barrel = 159 liters x RM2.70/liter = RM 429 or USD 134
On 1 hand, we are paying the full cost of 1 barrel of crude oil with RM2.70
per liter but on the other hand the crude oil only produces 46%
of fuel.

Malaysia sells crude oil per barrel at USD130 buys back Fuel per barrel at USD134. And
not forgetting, every barrel of fuel is produced with 2 barrels of crude oil.

1 barrel crude oil = produce 46% fuel (or half of crude oil), therefore 2 barrel crude oil = approximately 1 barrel fuel In other words, each time we sell 2 barrels of crude oil,
equivalently we will buy back 1 barrel of fuel.

Financially, Malaysia sell 2 barrel crude oil @ USD 130/barrel = USD 260
= RM 858 then, Malaysia will buy back fuel @ USD 134/barrel = RM
442/barrel.

Thus, Malaysia earn net extra USD 126 = RM 416 for each 2 barrel of crude sold/exported vs imported 1 barrel of fuel !!!
(USD 260-134 = USD 126 = RM416)

So where this extra USD 126/barrel income is channeled to by Malaysian Government?????????

Another analysis:

1 barrel crude oil = 159 liters. 46-47% of a barrel of crude oil = fuel that we use in our
vehicles. 46% of 159 = 73.14 liters.
@ RM 2.70/liter x 73.14 liter = RM197.48 of fuel per barrel of crude oil.
This is only 46% of the barrel, mind you. Using RM 3.30 = USD 1, we get that a
barrel of crude oil produces USD 59.84 worth of petrol fuel (46% of 1 barrel).
USD 59.84 of USD 130/barrel turns out to be 46% of a barrel as well.

Another 54% = bitumen, kerosene, and natural gases and so many more.

And this makes a balance of USD 70.16 that has not been accounted for.

So this is where I got curious. Where is the subsidy if we are paying 46% of
the price of a barrel of crude oil when the production of petrol/barrel of crude
oil is still only 46%?

In actual fact, we still pay for this as they are charged in the forms of fuel
surcharge by airlines and road taxes for the building of road (because they
use the tar/bitumen) and many more excuse charging us but let us just leave all
that out of our calculations.

As far as I know, only the politicians who live in Putrajaya and come for their
Parliament meetings in Kuala Lumpur (approximately 60+ km) are the ones to
gain as they claim their fuel and toll charges from the money of the RAKYAT's TAX.

It is so disappointing to see this happen time and time again to the Malaysian
public, where they are deceived by the propaganda held by the politicians and the
controls they have over the press.

Which stupid idiot economist equates rebates for rich or poor with the cc of
the vehicles? An average office clerk may own a second hand 1300cc proton Iswara
costing $7,000 (rebate = $625) while the Datuk's children can own a fleet of
10 new cars of BMW, Audi and Volvo all less than 2000cc costing $2 millions and
get a total rebate of $625 x 10 = $6,250! Wow what kind of economists we are
keeping in Malaysia...wonder which phD certificate that they bought
from...

Misleading concept of Subsidy:

The word "subsidy" has been brandished by the BN government as if it has so generously helped the rakyat and in doing so incurred losses. This simple example will help to explain the fallacy:

Example:

Ahmad is a fisherman. He sells a fish to you at $10 which is below the market value of $15. Let's assume that he caught the fish from the abundance of the sea at little or no cost. Ahmad claims that since the market value of the fish is $15 and he sold you the fish for $10, he had subsidised you $5 and therefore made a loss of $5.

Question : Did Ahmad actually make a profit of $10 or loss of $5 which he claimed is the subsidy?

Answer:

Ahmad makes a profit of $10 which is the difference of the selling price ($10) minus the cost price ($0 since the fish was caught from the abundance of the sea).
There is no subsidy as claimed by Ahmad.

The BN government claims that it is a subsidy because the oil is kept and treated as somebody else's property (you know who). By right, the oil belongs to all citizens of the country and the government is a trustee for the citizens. So as in the above simple example, the BN government cannot claim that it has subsidised the citizen!

Darren Turned 12 Today

2008-06-12T21:54:00.005+08:00

My son Darren turned 12 years old today. I took leave today to arrange to go with him to the National Registration Department (NRD) to do his MyKad. Last minute changes to his school schedule did not allow us enough time to go to the NRD to do his MyKad. We have to do it tomorrow where I would need to seek his class teacher's permission to release him from his afternoon class. Furthermore, tomorrow is Friday the 13th and Muslim's prayers day where the NRD is only opened from 2.45 p.m. to 4.45 p.m.. It will be a rush job going there to queue up to do his MyKad.

Dareen has grown tall since last year. You can see his photo taken 2 years ago on his birthday from this link. He is taller than all the members of the family except me. He has already reached my ears and I think he can be taller than me soon.

Tonight, his birthday was celebrated by the family with a cake and a gift from his mum and his sisters.. a SWATCH watch. Me? Well I have not got him any present yet because I could not think of anything I can get him for now. He has also everything a boy of his age wants.

Finally, HAPPY BIRTHDAY , son!!

Firefox 3.0 is coming

2008-06-10T22:20:00.005+08:00

I have been a Firefox fan all the while. The browser has multi tabs to enable be to navigate to more pages in in single screen. IE 7.0 can do the same after they saw what Firefox can do but loading a tab in IE 7.0 is a real hassle and it looks clumsy and heavy.

Firefox 3.0 is coming and I have tried the Beta version of it. However, I uninstall it after a try. Why? Because I used many add-ons in the current version of the Firefox and the 3.0 beta version does not offer any add-ons or themes.

Now for the coming event for the launch of Firefox 3.0, preparation are underway to break the Guinness World Record for the most number of download in 24 hours. A pledge page has been set up to allow interested people (like me) to be informed of this historiacal event of achieving the Guinness Record.

You can sign in your pledge at the following URL:

MARK YOUR CALENDAR 17 JUNE 2008 - Firefox 3.0 Launch Date

Prices of everything goes up, except your salary

2008-06-05T13:31:00.004+08:00

First it was the price of rice and foodstuff. This was just the beginning of other cost of things to rise. Yesterday the Government announced that the price of petrol will go up by 78 sens tp RM2.70. I was waiting for my son at the school when I received and SMS from Mary of the fuel price increase. Luckily I still have half a tank of petrol in my car and would not want to rush to the nearest petrol station to fill up my tank.

On my way back home, I can see that all the petrol stations were jammed with cars all lining up to fill up their tanks. A savings of 78 sens on a full tank of petrol would be savings of some money for some if the car is being used to travel long distances on a daily basis.

The price of fuel is just one of the many things that was declared by the Government that the price has risen, other things include other petroleum products like diesel and NGV. The other important thing was the cost of electricity will also rise. This would impact 59% of the total consumers.

As compared with our neighboring countries like Singapore and Thailand, the cost of fuel is still cheaper.

With an adjustment in our income, the rising cost of living means that most of us have to watch what we spend.

After 1,500 km I am back home

2008-06-03T07:51:00.004+08:00

Continuing my adventure in Kota Bahru. After the shower and a a rest.. I meant a real rest I ventured out again. The time was about evening almost 5.00 p.m. I decided to take a trip to PCB to see what are the happenings there. I was in for a surprise again.. no parking space. The beach was filled with people from everywhere, there were may cars with registration plates from KL and Penang. I managed to park away from the beach and took a stroll to see what are the activities that were going on.

People were flying kites, taking their bath at the beach, picnics and most of all there were many people are the stalls next to the beach. The stores were selling fried things like, fish balls, crab stick prawns and crabs. All dipped into a flour mixture and then deep fried.

Time to set off back to KB. While driving back I saw the sign "Zakini Nasi Kukus" (Zakini Steamed Rice). This was the place that I had I steam rice and curry the last time I was in KB. The store was originally located at the stadium and it has since shifted. I decided to have my dinner there. The food remained unchanged with the steamed rice and ayam perchik. Nothing much was left at the food counter and the food was cold. I took a piece of ayam perchik, ayam goreng and two pieces of pineapple. Plus a can of soft drink, it cost me RM10.60, rather expensive and the taste was not as good as the last time I had it at the stadium.

I decided to go back to the hotel and knock off early since I will have a long journey for me to travel from KB to Jeli crossing over to Gerik.

The next morning, I woke up at 7.00 a.m. and got ready to check out. I took off from KB and headed along highway number 8 towards Machang. From Machang junction I turned to Tanah Merah where I intended to have breakfast and to fill up my tank. I stopped at a road side stall where I had my favourite Nasi Dagang. Filled up my tank and I was on my way along hightway number 4 heading towards Jeli. Jeli is located right smack in the middle of Kelantan.
From Jeli I moved on to Gerik where I stopped at the Pulau Banding jetty to snap some photo of the bridges that crossed the man made lakes.

My journey was to travel to Gerik to Lenggong, but I saw the sign of the place Baling. Baling is the famous town where the peace treaty was signed between the then Prime Minister with the Communist Part of Malaya. I then decided to change my routing to follow the communist journey.

Reaching Baling was a dissapointment. Nothing much there except some rolls of shops. I then decided to travel to Kulim where I would join the North South Highway at Butterworth. The drive from Baling was long and reaching Kulim, I managed to join Buterworth via the Kulim Butterworth highway where it joined to the North South Highway. From there, I was thinking to take a trip to Penang Island but on second thought I changed my mind because I would want to drive home.

From Butterworth I drove to Ipoh where I had lunch at McDonald's and then did some shopping at Ipoh city before I drove off back home. I called home to say that I will be back at 6.00 p.m. for dinner.

I finally reach home at 6.00 p.m. as promised and back to my familiar and wonderful bed.

The whole journey for the past 3 days and 2 night took me around the Peninsular of Malaysia crossing the states of Pahang, Trengganu, Kelantan, Kedah, Pulau Pinang, Perak and Selangor. The whole trip was about 1,550 km from my trip meter reading. A hectic and enjoyable one. Now I am thinking whether I want to travel toward south to cover the states there.

Here is a map of my journey. The routes I have taken is in red.

My Great Malaysia Journey

2008-06-01T13:40:00.007+08:00

I have a week long to time to kill, what should I do? It has been a long time since I have taken a drive around Malaysia. I have been travelling overseas for the past one and a half years and even holidays with my family is going overseas (the last trip was to Bangkok in December 2007).

Taking a week off, I planned to travel by driving to the east coast to Kuantan, and then work myself up north to Kota Bharu. I took another challenge to drive across the East-West highway. All this was planned out within 2 days.

I am travelling alone this time around because my wife and daughters are busy with their work and studies. My son is very impatient when travelling in a car. I offered him to join me and he declined my offer.

For accommodation, I managed to get a free night at Renaissance Hotel in Kota Bharu from the points that I collected for my Marriot rewards. I did not make any accommodation bookings in Kuantan (where I planned to stay for the night) because I was not sure whether to stay in the town or the beach.

So I started my journey on Saturday morning (31 May) heading to Kuantan. I was in for a surprise. It has been almost 7 years since I step foot in Kuantan. My last trips there were during the 1990 when I doing audit of the Kuantan branch and my last trip there was with my family to beach resort in 2002. The East Coast highway has been completed and the road was good. I managed to speed along the highway at an average speed of about 150km/hr where some stretches I managed to go as high as 180 km/hr. The trip from KL to Kuantan last time took about 3.5 to 4 hours, took me just under 1.5 hours this time.

I was very disappointed when I was in Kuantan, it was a Saturday and the town was like deserted. There were not many people and cars around town around. Even when I went to the beach area, there were not people too.

So I decided to travel along the shore to hunt down some beach resort. All beach resorts were packed due to the school holidays.

Not so many people at the beach at Kuantan

Passing pass all the beach resorts, I decided to have lunch at Cukai, Kemaman for the famous stuffed crab at Tong Juan Restaurant. I reached there right smack during lunch time where all the table were packed. Luckily for me, I managed to get a table for myself. I ordered a stuffed crab, kangkong with belacan and a lemon chicken. I noticed that the size of the stuffing in the stuffed crab have shrunk and it does not taste as good as the last time I took it. All three dishes plus a drink cost me RM24.00. Reasonable? Well, looking at the rising cost of food, I would say that the price was rather on the high side for a lunch at this place but then again, this is a famous restaurant.

Tong Juan Restaurant at Cukai. Famous for its stuffed crab

Beach at Kemaman

After lunch I thought of traveling up to Kuala Trengganu where maybe along the way I may stop over to stay at any of the beach chalets along the way. However, to my disappointment, most of the beach chalets were not to my liking other than the Awana Kijal, but I know that that it has been fully booking.

I have left with no choice but to carry on my journey to Kuala Trengganu hoping that I stay in a hotel at the town. However, I faced another problem. Kuala Trengganu is the host for SUKMA or Sukan Malaysia where it is the nation’s “Olympics”. Before reaching Kuala Trengganu, I was caught a long traffic jam from Marang. I first thought that the jam was caused by the road works that were being done. The traffic jam carried on from Marang to Kuala Trengganu which is about 25 km long. Reaching Kuala Trengganu, I found out that the jam was caused by the high volume of traffic that was in Kuala Trengganu for SUKMA. All hotels were all booked up and there were no rooms in town.

I am frustrated because there were no rooms for me to stay for the night and I was caught in the long traffic jam for more than 1.5 hours. So what to do next, it was already 5.30 p. and it is getting dark soon. I decided to call the Renaissance Hotel in Kota Bharu to check with them whether there are any vacant rooms for the night. The Reservation told me that the hotel was also fully booked for the night. Why? It is the school holidays and it is a weekend and there were many Malay weddings where the relatives of the couples came by the bus loads and took up all the rooms.

My only choice now is to sleep in the car if I fail to get a room. So I decided to drive another 150 km from Kuala Trengganu to Kota Bharu hoping to get a hotel room there. I stopped over for fuel and the attendant told me that there were no rooms in Kuala Trengganu since Friday and many people were also caught in the same situation as I was. I then asked where is the nearest place I can get a room before reaching Kota Bharu. She said I could try to get a room in Besut.

After filling up my tank (I have travelled more than 500 km on my first full tank) and it has already turned dark, I drove north to Kota Bharu. The road was dark but it was a thrill to drive in the dark. I reached Besut district where the town where there could have hotel rooms is at Jerteh.

Guess what? All rooms in Jerteh were also taken up.. all because of the Malay weddings that were going on. I stopped over at Kentucky shop to have my dinner before carrying on my journey to Kota Bharu.

I reached Kota Bharu at almost 10.00 p.m., I decided not to look for accommodation for the night and decided to sleep in my car. The next question is where can I safely park my car and sleep? I saw the sign, “Pantai Cahaya Bulan(PCB)” ( Moonlight beach) in Kota Bharu and though maybe I could park my car on the beach and sleep in my car. When I reached PCB, I was in for a surprise, there were so many food stalls just next to the beach. The beach was separated from the stalls by a long granite boulder wall. I can find a place to park my car, but it is definitely not a place to sleep because there are so many people around.

I decided to park and sleep at the basement of the Renaissance Hotel. At least, it would be safer place and I would not be disturbed. I brought along two pillow where I managed to pull down my driver seat and sleep. Sleeping at the basement was not too comfortable, it was stuffy and hot because I did wind down the car windows and the basement was warm too. So I need to turn on the car air-cond to cool down before switching it off to sleep. I think I did this for about 4 times. Luckily I managed to get some deserving sleep.

I was awaken at about 7.30 a.m. in the morning due to a bang at my car door. At first I thought it was the security guard who did that but it turned out to be the owner of the car next to mine opened his car door which knocked into my car door.

I got up and went to the reception desk to ask when I can check-in to my room. I was told that I could only check-in at 2.00 p.m.. So, I took my car and drove around Kota Bharu to have my breakfast at White House. White House served the best half boiled eggs in town and at the same time, I wanted to eat Nasi Dagang. I managed to find the place and had the stuff that I wanted with a cup of coffee where all cost me RM4.30, reasonable price.

I could not wait till 2.00 p.m. to check-in to the room so I went back to the reception before noon and asked whether I can have a room. Luckily, there was a room available and I managed to check-in. The first thing I did was to have a nice shower and after that write down all this events before I forget about it.

So there are more to come of my journey.. stay tune!!

View of Kota Bharu from my room

The world is in a bad shape

2008-05-26T01:00:00.004+08:00

Looking back at the happenings for this year.. 2008 does not look too good. Natural disasters, rising oil and food price and the political situation at home and abroad are all not looking too good.

The cyclone that hit Mynamar and the earthquake that hit China killed so many people. Lost of lives, lost of shelter, lost of love ones disease are all the suffering that are endured by the people there. Then other people around the world have to chip in to assist the victims to recover.

Oil price has sky rocketed to USD122 per barrel. Why? I cannot give a definate answer but one of the reason is the devaluation of the US dollar which was caused by the mortgage sub-prime that hit the Americans. I do not feel that there is actually a shortage of oil. The same bag of 10kg of fragent rice that I bought last month which cost me RM36.00 now cost RM50.00. Even the rice at the chicken rice plate has became less since I came back from Shanghai. The price of food stuff has also sky rocket.

Political situation in Malaysia has been interesting after the General Elections in March. Looks like there will be some changes within this year but whetehr the changes are good would be left to be seem.

Looks like it will be challenging 2008!!

Finally I am HOME!!

2008-05-09T22:56:00.003+08:00

I managed to touch down at KLIA at 8.50 p.m. on 8 May 2008 , after being away for 26 days (since 13 April 2008). Luckily, the project went very smooth with not hitches. My team and I managed to "get out" before the actual scheduled return date by 4 days. Every one of us were eager to come home. Wifes are waiting, daughters are waiting, boyfriends are waiting and family are waiting for our return.

It was raining on the morning of 8 May and the rain did not stopped even till 11.50 a.m. when we decided to take the cab to the airport. The flight was at 3.50 p.m. but flying Business Class, we can enjoy the executive lounge where we can dine and sit comfortability from the people who are traveling on Economy class. Unless the last time I was in Shanghai, we have to check into the new Terminal 2 of Pudong Airport. I was surprised when I landed at Pudong on 13 April where I could not see many people around. I only realized that I touched down at Terminal 2. Similarly, flying back to KL also require us to check in at Terminal 2.

The plane took off as scheduled and we managed to land on time.

Reaching home, I am like Santa Claus (as described by my daughter, Carrie) opening up my bags (yes, from 2 bags going to Shanghai, I returned with 5 bags) bringing out all the stuff that I have bought for the family. You can see the details of the stuff that I bought from Carrie's blog.

I have been busy today sorting out my things like getting my Tag Heuer serviced (the battery is going to die), went for a hair cut and went to the aquarium shop to get some stuff for the fishes. After that, most of time is spend in front of the PC sorting our my photos. You can see photos at http://www. flickr.com/photos/kokkuen.

Greetings from Shanghai

2008-04-19T21:00:00.002+08:00

I have landed in Shanghai on Sunday, 13 April and have been here for the past 1 week. Time really fly. I managed to find the access to Blogger from China. It was surprise because because last year when I was in Shanghai, access to Blogger was blocked.

It has been a fully working week since I landed in Shanghai. Only last night, I managed to get out of the office before 10.00 p.m.. I managed to take a walk with my staff who is here in Shanghai for the first time. We walked all the way from the hotel to Lujiazhui area before we took the subway to Puxi and Nanjing Road.

Nothing changes much in Shanghai since last year except the the Shanghai Financial Center is almost completed and now has taken over Jin Mao Building as the tallest building in China. I managed to snap a photo of the two buildings together and guess which item in the photo is the tallest?.. Well it's the Moon!!!
I have to work through the weekend to ensure that the project is completed on time. I managed to sneak sometime to write posting. More photos will be posting as and when I can afford the time.

Shanghai here I come... again?

2008-04-11T21:49:00.003+08:00

After being in KL since my last overseas assignment in Manila, I have grown to love being at home, doing the stuff that I like and most of all being with my family.

On Sunday, I will travel to Shanghai for my assignment. It will be short but very intense assignment. Yeah, it's back to Shanghai after being away for 1 year. I was there last year when I was a rookie and still fumbling my way in my new company. Now after a year's of exposure, I am ready for a bigger challenge and project.

Actually I am on project with China but my team and I were operating remotely with the users from KL. Every evening my team and I will be on conference call with the users in Shanghai. The project was a small project and does not have a big budget, so traveling to Shanghai and being with the users there was not within the cost of the budget. However, this small project proves that we can operate from KL with any parts of the world. Luckily this project is having the same time zone with KL (there is no time difference between KL and Shanghai). Should the project be a project in the Middle East or Africa.. we would have till late in the night to work with the users.

Then came this project for China too, which has big budget and it is required to be down in less than 1 month, we took the opportunity to "piggy back" on the bug budget to be in Shanghai doing 2 projects in one go. Its a sacrifice for my team and I but its worth it since my team has not been to China and it was a good opportunity to mingle with the users that we were engaging all the while over the phone without knowing how they look like. The same goes for the users too, I think they would be anxious to see how looked like after hearing our voices all this will.

I am writing this post because I know that I cannot access Blogger from China. I had bad experience trying to put up a posting in Blogger from China because of their policy of baring access to Blogger. At the same time, I do not want my friends and visitors to my blog wondering what had happened to me for the next one month.

Well now you know.. I am off to Shanghai and crossing my fingers that I would be able to put up some stories of my stay there. In the meantime.. cheers!!!

Where do I download my torrents?

2008-04-05T20:41:00.003+08:00

To Daniel who asked me where did I download my torrents?
Well I download most of my torrent from this site:

www. mininova.org

This site host the most up to date movies, games, software, books, pictures and TV shows. The site is free and does not require any sign-up. At the same time, I would like to mention that I use Bitcomet has by download client. The client integrate very well with Firefox which is the internet browser that I am using.

You may also add another add-on for Firefox which is Flashgot which is also a good download assistance.

Birthday Calculator

2008-03-26T22:01:00.004+08:00

Want to know more about your birthday? Well head on to this link:

http://www.paulsadowski.com/birthday.asp

Here are the result of my birthday:

Your date of conception was on or about 24 January 1961 which was a Tuesday.

You were born on a Tuesday
under the astrological sign Libra.
Your Life path number is 8.

Your fortune cookie reads:
Delay is the antidote for anger.

Life Path Compatibility:
You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 4, 8, 11 & 22.
You should get along well with those with the Life Path number 6.
You may or may not get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 1 & 5.
You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 3, 7 & 9.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2437589.5.
The golden number for 1961 is 5.
The epact number for 1961 is 13.
The year 1961 was not a leap year.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 2/15/1961 and ending 2/4/1962.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Ox.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Raven; your plant is Ivy.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Choiach, the fourth month of the season of Poret (Emergence - Fertile soil).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 7 Heshvan 5722.
Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 8 Heshvan 5722.

The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.17.8.1.5 which is
12 baktun 17 katun 8 tun 1 uinal 5 kin

The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Tuesday, 7 Jumadiyu'l-Avval 1381 (1381-5-7).

The date of Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 2 April 1961.
The date of Orthodox Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 9 April 1961.
The date of Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) on your birth year was Wednesday 15 February 1961.
The date of Whitsun (Pentecost Sunday) in the year of your birth was Sunday 21 May 1961.
The date of Whisuntide in the year of your birth was Sunday 28 May 1961.
The date of Rosh Hashanah in the year of your birth was Monday, 11 September 1961.
The date of Passover in the year of your birth was Saturday, 1 April 1961.
The date of Mardi Gras on your birth year was Tuesday 14 February 1961.

As of 3/26/2008 10:01:28 AM EST
You are 46 years old.
You are 557 months old.
You are 2,423 weeks old.
You are 16,962 days old.
You are 407,098 hours old.
You are 24,425,881 minutes old.
You are 1,465,552,888 seconds old.

Celebrities who share your birthday:

Nick Cannon (1980)	Eminem (1972)	Wyclef Jean (1972)
Chris Kirkpatrick (1971)	Norm MacDonald (1963)	Alan Jackson (1958)
Howard Rollins (1950)	Margot Kidder (1948)	George Wendt (1948)
Evel Knievel (1938)	Jimmy Breslin (1930)	Tom Poston (1921)
Montgomery Clift (1920)	Rita Hayworth (1918)	Arthur Miller (1915)
Jean Arthur (1905)	Spring Byington (1893)

Top songs of 1961

Tossin' and Turnin' by Bobby Lewis	Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean
Runaway by Del Shannon	Wonderland By Night by Bert Kaempfert
Pony Time by Chubby Checker	The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Tokens
Blue Moon by Marcels	Take Good Care of My Baby by Bobby Vee
Calcutta by Lawrence Welk	Runaround Sue by Dion

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 6.63874755381605 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)

Your lucky day is Friday.
Your lucky number is 6.
Your ruling planet(s) is Venus.
Your lucky dates are 6th, 15th, 24th.
Your opposition sign is Aries.
Your opposition number(s) is 9.

Today is not one of your lucky days!

There are 205 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 47 candles.

Those 47 candles produce 47 BTUs,
or 11,844 calories of heat (that's only 11.8440 food Calories!) .
You can boil 5.37 US ounces of water with that many candles.

In 1961 there were approximately 4.2 million births in the US.
In 1961 the US population was approximately 179,323,175 people, 50.6 persons per square mile.
In 1961 in the US there were approximately 1,523,000 marriages (8.5%) and 393,000 divorces (2.2%)
In 1961 in the US there were approximately 1,712,000 deaths (9.5 per 1000)
In the US a new person is born approximately every 8 seconds.
In the US one person dies approximately every 12 seconds.

In 1961 the population of Australia was approximately 10,642,654.
In 1961 there were approximately 239,986 births in Australia.
In 1961 in Australia there were approximately 76,686 marriages and 6,712 divorces.
In 1961 in Australia there were approximately 88,961 deaths.

Your birthstone is Tourmaline

The Mystical properties of Tourmaline

Pink Tourmaline promotes female balance and protection. Green Toumaline promotes male balance.

Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)

Opal, Jasper

Your birth tree is

Maple, Independence of Mind
No ordinary person, full imagination and originality, shy and reserved, ambitious, proud, self-respect, hungers for new experiences, sometimes nervous, many complexes, good memory, learns easily, complicated love life, wants to impress.

There are 274 days till Christmas 2008!
There are 287 days till Orthodox Christmas!

The moon's phase on the day you were
born was in its first quarter.

It's already coming to the end of March!!

2008-03-23T17:35:00.005+08:00

It has been a long long time since I have written anything in my blog. To be honest, my hobby of writing blog is slowly fading away. WHY?

There are few reasons:

One - I am lazy
Two - I noticed that other people are also lazy writing in their blogs too
Three - Got other hobbies
Four - Nothing interesting to write
Five - Lazy
Six - I am still in Kuala Lumpur since my last trip to Manila in November
Seven - Lazy
Eight - Lazy
Nine - Lazy
Ten - Lazy

I managed to bump into some of my former colleagues and they mentioned how come they have not been able to see any updated to my blog.. well the above said it all.

What I have been doing for the past three months?

Well I am caught up in a new hobby - downloading TV series via Torrent. So far I managed to download the following shows Nip/Tuck Season 5 (I bought the full set of DVD from Season 1 to 4 when I was in Shanghai), Heroes Season 2, Project Runway Season 4, Hell's Kitchen Season 3, CSI New York Season 4, CSI Las Vegas Season 8, The Celebrity Apprentice (Season 7), Amercia Next Top Model cycle 10 (that's for my daughters), American Idol Season 7 and The Sarah Conner Chronicle - from the Terminator. Apart from TV shows, I also managed to download a bunch of movies like Rambo and Hitman without any censorship!!
I have even upgraded my Streamyx line to 1MB to enable fast downloading of the shows. I would keep my PC on to download the Torrent while I am away working and if there are adequate Torrent seeds, the file would be completely downloaded when I come back. Normal file size is about 380 MB for a 45 minutes show.

What started my download craze was when my wife requested me to get her a DVD player because the DVD player which was used for her TV was spoil. I managed to get a Pioneer DVD Player which can play DIVX format in addition to the normal DVD format. I experimented and found out that I managed to convert some AVI format shows to DIVX format where I can play it using the DVD. Great!! Once the AVI files are converted to DIVX I would burn them onto a DVD-RW disc to be played using the DVD player. After some time, I found out that the DVD player can also play files in AVI format, that has saved me lots to time and disk space to convert the AVI file to DIVX file.

Since I am not on any overseas assignment, I have the time at night to watch each TV episode which is recorded from HDTV before I go to bed. The quality of the images were excellent with stereo sound effect. No worries that I missed the episode on Astro and at the same time I can watch the episode just after it has been released in the States for show like The Celebrity Apprentice and America Next Top Model.

Workwise, I managed to attend the AGM for Public Bank and managed to meet up with some of my former colleagues. What was fed up was that some of them still think that I am on assignment in Shanghai... come on lar... I was in Shanghai in March to June 2007 and this is already 2008.. where the hell you got the information from???? But at least I am glad that the have not forgetten about me and my name. Maybe next year, they would have forgotten my name and by the next they would not have remembered my face!!!

No overseas assignment for this year since the travel budget is rather tight and I am running a few projects around the world remotely from my office in PJ. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, e-mail and teleconferencing!!

Ahh... the General Election.. I did not want to write much about if. Scared that I might me picked up under ISA and I would be writing my block from the detention camp in Kamunting. I am glad that the people of Malaysia have spoken. Most of the people that I spoke to before the election said that they would want to vote for the Opposition just to ensure that the current Government are kept on their toe by the Opposition. After the election, the results really surprised me that the Opposition managed to win so many seats. The share market fell more than 15% before and after the election. But I think this is a wake up call for the Government to know that the PEOPLE are not too happy with what is happening. Time for now for the Opposition to show what they can do and time also for the Government to improve what they need to improve.

Next week (24th March) my daughters will start their new education lives at the University. The elder one will be taking up a Degree course while the younger one will embark on a Foundation course leading to a Degree course upon completion. For them is a new journey of their education life but for me is a new journey for financing their education after they have enjoyed free education in the past. Luckily, I need not send them overseas since the degree courses are available in the country. The education journey for my daughters will set me back about RM100K for the next four years. On the brighter side, this is my investment in them for their education and career future.

Two Formula One Grand Prix have happened and today I am happy that Ferrari has won the Malaysian Grand Prix.

That's all for now!!

Gong Xi Fa Chai

2008-02-04T22:06:00.000+08:00

Wishing all my friends, visitors and reader a Happy New Year of the Rat 2008.
May you enjoy good health and prosperity in the year of the rat.

I have been lazy

2008-01-13T21:32:00.000+08:00

While I was taking my bath just now, I thought to myself that I have not been writing much in my blog for a long time. I have been uploading photos from my Thailand trip and I even did not finish my story of my trip in Thailand for the subsequent duration after Day 1.

I must admit that I have been lazy to come out with things to put into my blog. Then during my bath I told myself that I will write some thing in the blog when I come out from the bath room. And now here I am writing some things here.

For a start I want to mention that my blog have been receiving quite high volume of visitors for the past week. However, when I drilled down to the statistics of the visitors to my blog, I was surprise to know that these visitors were coming mainly from USA and India. The number of visitors from these countries have surpassed that from Malaysia. Looks like I ma more famous now in the USA and India!!!

After coming back from my vacation, it was back to work. Due to the expansion of staff, the company has expanded its office space to a new building. I have to shift my working space to a new building which located about 3 blocks from the previous one. I have been working from the new office since last Monday. Nothing much to shout about since the furniture looks the same, only thing is the office space of much bigger.

I have been making daily trips to Pavilion for the past week.. why? My daughters who have completed their examinations felt bored being at home and managed to find jobs at Pavilion. The elder one worked at Padini Concept Store while the younger one worked for a cosmetic outlet. We were concern about their safety and have resorted to pick them up daily after the work (at 10 p.m.). Making daily trips from my house in Cheras to Pavilion in the busy area of Jalan Bukit Bintang has been enjoyable for the first 2 days but after that.. huh.. BORING!!

Since the Chinese New Year is drawing near, I have to change the red lanterns at my house which has been hanging at the main door for the past 2 years. The skin of the lantern has broken and gathering dust. Time for a change of red lantern for the new year. Today, I managed to take a trip to Chinatown to buy a pair of 22 inches red lanterns. Hung it up, light it up and it looked great. Let's hope that the pair of fresh red lantern would bring me good fortune this year of the RAT!!!

Crocodile school!!

2008-01-10T23:13:00.000+08:00

Just imagine how crocodiles would like going to school!!!

Alcazar show at Pattaya

2008-01-10T23:07:00.001+08:00

Alcazar C10, originally uploaded by Kok Kuen.

The famous performers at Alcazar show at Pattaya. Just see how they dance DO NOT ask them to speak.. you will run away!!!

Alcazar show at Pattaya

2008-01-10T22:53:00.000+08:00

A small snippet of the Alcazar show at Pattaya

River Cruise

2008-01-02T23:55:00.001+08:00

River Cruise 8, originally uploaded by Kok Kuen.

Lovely structure on the banks of Choa Phraya during our night river cruise.

Floating market

2008-01-01T16:10:00.001+08:00

Floating market 2, originally uploaded by Kok Kuen.

Hello 2008

2007-12-31T13:46:00.000+08:00

Images of Thailand - Cultural Dancers

2007-12-28T00:18:00.000+08:00

I am in love again!!

2007-12-26T20:02:00.000+08:00

Help me!!! I am in love again!!! No not with another woman.. I am in love with the new Honda Accord 2008.

While on my way to Hua Hin, I managed to see a magazine which featured the new Honda Accord. I could see that it is a new model but I do not understand what was written in Thai. I managed to pass by a Honda showroom where there was a unit being displayed but it was too bad that I could not stop to see the car itself. I was also not able to see the car being display in any of the malls that I went to in Bangkok.

So I have to resort to view the website of Honda Thailand at http://www.honda.co.th/accord
I love the car!! It look sleeks and nice and I am awaiting for its arrival in Malaysia, I think would be middle of next year before I decide to... huh? WAKE UP!!!

Ok ok, here are some wallpaper of the car and a YouTube clip of the advertisement:

Swadee Bangkok

2007-12-25T14:56:00.000+08:00

The children have completed their examinations (STP and SPM) and they were all rally to go for a vacation. This time around it would be Bangkok. Why Bangkok? Because my wife's uncle and cousin are Thais and they are staying in Bangkok. They were here in KL during Chinese New Year and we thought that it would be nice to reciprocate their visit to foster the relationship. At the same time, my wife's uncle, aunt and cousins have always be requesting to visit them in Bangkok. My daughters were excited because they can shop for their clothings there. So we made arrangement to fly there and join a tour for 3 days and extend our stay in Bangkok for a total of a week. All arrangements for the tickets, tour and accommodation were done on own on. The worse part was the accommodation, it seems that every hotel in Bangkok is full! We hesitated to go to Bangkok when I was informed that the General Election is scheduled on 23 December when were are in Bangkok. Fearing that there my be unrest after the ousted Thaksin Shinawatra, we fear that the party of the former PM would create some problems during the election. My wife made some calls to some friends in Bangkok and got the assurance that the King has requested for a peaceful election and that Bangkok would be safe during the elections.

We took off from Kl on 18th December, taking the ERL from Tasek Selatan to KLIA. We landed at the new (one year old) Suvarnabhumi Airport and it is very obvious that the traffic (passengers and planes) at the Bangkok airport is very much more that our KLIA.

We were greeted by our tour guide, a short guy call Pradit but he prefer to be called by his nickname Noome who speaks so-so English. The van was also waiting for us and we were taken to check-in to our hotel, The First Hotel which is located the center of the busy Pra Tu Nam area of Bangkok. We choose this hotel because it is very near shopping area and walking distance from the Skytrain.

We only had time to freshen up before my wife's aunt and cousin arrived at the hotel to greet us. Our next stop was the famous four face Buddha located in the Erawan Hotel. The San Phra Phrom or Erawan Shrine was created as a spirit house connected to the Erawan Hotel, which has now made way for the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel. There were so many people there both locals and tourist performing their offering and prays there. We bought colourful flower garlands, gold leaves, incense, and candles. We then performed our prayers at the shrine. I managed to made offering twice on all the four faces of Buddha.

Then off we go for our dinner. Dinner was at a local Chinese restaurant but with the added Tomyam to act as the appetizer for the dinner. I am able to take the spicy and sour soup while my children find it hard to take it.

After dinner, we were taken to the famous night bazaar, Suan Num Night Bazaar. I find it hard to do my shopping there because the place is stuffy and hot. Then we need to bargain to buy the goods there. My wife's aunt and cousin came along with us and they managed to bargain much better than us (since they are local there). There was an item were we bought for Baht160 and for the same price, they were about to bargain to buy two items for the same price.

After a tiring day, we went back to the hotel and rested for our long journey for the next day to Pattaya.

Arrival at the Suvarnabhumi airport

One of the many "guardian" gods at the airport

The emblem for the 80th birthday celebration of theKing. The devotion and respect of the King is very obvious in Thailand.

The four-face Buddha shrine

A closer view of the four-faced Buddha

You know that you are in Thailand when you see this sign!!

Merry Christmas greetings

2007-12-25T12:59:00.000+08:00

Ho! Ho! Ho!, it is the time of the year to say Merry Christmas to all my readers.
I have been away from home for the past week and was on vacation on Bangkok with the family. We arrived back late last night on Christmas eve and I need to re-adjust myself before I can put up this post. There are stories to be told during my stay in Bangkok and many photos to show. Please come back to view my stories and photos here and also at my Flickr album.

In the meantime, the picture of the Christmas tree was captured at the Twin Tower Hotel in Bangkok.

New malls around KL

2007-12-16T23:59:00.000+08:00

As the festive season is in and bonus time is also in, a few malls have pop up within KL and PJ areas. Well only one is new while two others are extension of the existing malls. The new mall is The Pavilion (where I shot some fashion photos) while the Garden is the extension at Mid Valley and Sunway Pyramid had a new extension wing.

Today I have the chance to visit the Garden, the new extension of Mid Valley. There two new anchor tenants which are Isetan and Robinson. The place was nice and with good architecture and interior design. I managed to snap some scenes the place before I was informed by a "security" girl who politely informed me that I am not suppose to take pictures in the premise.

Here are some photos taken during my trip to the Garden and Mid Valley today.

The "security" lady who advise me to stop shotting!!

A view of my son and I through the Christmas tree crystal ball

Rainy days and Monday

2007-12-10T21:00:00.000+08:00

Monday.. rainy day.. it is now 9.00 p.m. and it has not stopped raining since 10.00 a.m. this morning. The rainy season is here in Kuala Lumpur.

Yes.. I am back in Kuala Lumpur, my hometown, my city after being away for almost a month in Manila.. I am finally back home!!!

Well actually I left Manila on 1 December. I rushed back to office the following Monday to prepare for my next project.. organising the Team Building event for my group. I volunteered to organise the first team building event for my group after being persuaded by some of my close friend. Most of the work organising the event was done remotely from Manila with the help of my colleagues who are in office. It was not an easy task since rounding up all the staff to participate in the event. Some of them were away from office on assignment overseas, some cannot come because they have to look after their children, the was one who was had tendered his resignation and there a few who said that they could not join the whole event because they need to attend to meetings and other work. Come on!! Where is the team spirit for a TEAM BUILDING event???

Ok ok.. I can bear with them. The event was held at Genting View Resort and the staff were saying why go there where it so near to KL. Why could not they go to the beach or mountain or water rafting?? WHY??? Because we are sort of the budget and there is a direction to have it for a 2 days maximum course!!

How many more obstacle that this event has to go through before we proceed??? Then came the T-shirt issue.. some of those who could not make it to the event wanted the T-shirt. The decision given was that those who are not attending the event are not entitled for the T-shirt. Then there were complains.. in the end, we were given the OK to provide also T-shirts for those who did not attend the event.

On the big day, Friday, 7th December, we were off to Genting View Resort. It rained!!! Wet wet wet and cold. But the event still need to go on and it did. Everyone enjoyed it!! See the pictures.. I don't want to say more.

Deja Vu

2007-11-30T08:13:00.000+08:00

After the curfew imposed on Manila from 12.00 a.m. to 5.00 a.m., I am finally arrived safely in my apartment. The newspaper was filled with articles talking about the filed coup that happened yesterday. I found this article in The Philippines Star papers which I find very interesting. It was the Editorial in the paper and was titled Deja Vu.

This one ended even quicker than its precedent four years ago. Saying they wanted to avoid bloodshed, detainees accused of plotting a coup led by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim surrendered and were re-arrested early last night. Hours earlier, the two men had walked out of their court in Makati and then marched in the rain to the five-star Manila Peninsula Hotel in the heart of the nation's financial district, where they demanded the resignation of President Arroyo and called on other members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to join them.

Both men are not new to trying to topple the government from posh accommodations. Lim led the takeover of hotels in Makati in December 1989, in the bloodiest attempt to topple the administration of Corazon Aquino. How the government dealt with him has to have a bearing on his action yesterday and on those of Trillanes and their supporters. After getting a slap on the wrist for the 1989 coup, Lim was eventually reinstated. Under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who rose to power on the wings of a military-backed popular revolt, Lim was even appointed to head the elite Army Scout Ranger Regiment.

Trillanes was a junior officer when he joined several others and staged a mutiny in July 2003. That time, they picked the posh Oakwood serviced apartments, also in the heart of Makati, to stage their mutiny. From detention, Trillanes managed to win a seat in the Senate last May. when adventurism is rewarded, it is bound to be repeated. Thus we had the hotel siege yesterday staged by individuals already facing charges of plotting a coup last year.

An attempted coup and curfew in Manila

2007-11-29T20:15:00.000+08:00

I woke up at noon today (after performing my night shift) and was watching CNN over the TV when it was reported that there was a coup going on in a hotel in Makati. I switched over to the local TV channel where there was live coverage of the coup going on at the Peninsula Hotel. The hotel is located about 800 meters away from my apartment.

It seems that a Senator who lead a failed mutiny against the President in 2003 and a General who were in trial, walked out of the trial and took over the hotel. There were also about 30 soldiers who have joined in the coup. The hotel was surrounded by army personnels, police and SWAT team. They were given up to 3.00 p.m. to give up. When 3.00 p.m. arrived, nothing was done.

At about 4.30 p.m. an army armoured vehicle knocked down the main entrance of the hotel. The Senator and the General finally gave up citing that they do not want anyone to get killed in the crossfire. All the people involved were arrested which include the people from the media. The people from the media were also rounded up because the authorities was afraid that the soilders might disguise themselves to escape the arrest. So the tension has ended.

While I was having my dinner with my "Angel", they received text messages that the President has impose curfew from 12.00 a.m. to 5.00 a.m. in Metro Manila and Luzon area. The curfew was imposed to facilitate the arrest for other personalities behind the standoff today.

Whew.. this is the first time that I have encounter such a turmoil and being in a place where curfew is imposed. Luckily, there was no serious incidents that have happened.

For duration of my stay in Manila, I have experienced two explosion incidents, an earthquake tremor, a near typoon, a near coup and a curfew. My stay in Manila will be a memorable one!!!

I feel the earth under my feet!!!

2007-11-28T01:56:00.000+08:00

I was alone in my apartment on 27 November. I was on the night shift where I only go to the office later in the day. I sat on the couch to access the net using my notebook. Suddenly, the couch being pushed from the back. I was surprise and wondered whether it was someone playing a trick on me by pushing the couch. However, I knew that there was no one around. I also saw the curtains moving and I realised that I was shocked by an earthquake.

Wow, this is the first time that I have encountered an earthquake!! Later I overheard the radio announcement that a tremor of 6 on the Ricther scale has hit the Luzon island about 100km away from Manila. The earthquake has sent tremor to the Manila area including Makati area where I am staying.

For the past week, tropical storm around the Philippines has turned into typoon. I was waiting for one to hit Manila so that I can witness how strong the wind will blow. The typoon did not arrive at Manila but has lashed out on the northern part of the island. The typoon has created flood and have cause the death to at least 10 people who drown during the storm.

Fun in Manila

2007-11-24T20:49:00.001+08:00

After a long six months, my project in Manila is coming to an end. The project has been very successful. To celebrate the success of the project, a party was organised by the office staff.

In the project there were some colleagues who were from Indian, food for the party was a bit of problem becuase some of them are vegetgerian and strictly no meat for their meals. To make every one happy, the party was held at an Indian restaurant called Prince of Jaipur which was located in Fort Bonafacio. The restaurant was decorated with many Indian paintings of Maharaja and Maharanis.

Almost every one who were involved in the project attended the party. Food was a mix of vegeterian and also non vegeterian consisting of mutton and fish. The Indians were the most happy seeing the food which they are familiar to. Whilst the Filipinos and others.. well they are accomodate to have Indian food which is treated as a different cusines from their routine food.

After the food, time for some fun. There was a lovely belly dancer who serene us with the lovely smile and twisting hips and belly. The guys' eye were all on her. There was also free flow of drinks from the bar, tequila, rum and volka. Everyone were having fun drinking. Some went too fast and too furious on the drinks that they were drunk before 11.00 p.m.

By 11.00 p.m. the Indian restaurant was turned into a disco. Music machine was placed on the stage and there was a female DJ spinning dance songs. By 12.00 p.m. I need to leave the restaurant because I still need to go back to the office to continue my work.

I had fun during the party and here are some of the photos taken with the people at the party.

My project team in Manila, From left, Selvi from Chennai and Rika who is working with me from KL.

The lovely Yahoo

The belly dancer

Happy people

I will leave my heart in Manila.. see these lovely and beautiful ladies with me!!!

Another bomb blast in Manila

2007-11-14T12:10:00.000+08:00

When I arrived back at my apartment last night at about 10 p.m., we were watching BBC where the news report that there was a bomb blast at the House of Representative, in Quezon City. The bomb blast killed 3 people including one of the local Congressman Wahad Akbar and also injured 7 people.

This is the second bomb blast since I was here in Manila. Luckily I am still fine. Quezon City is located about half and hours taxi drive from Makati. The tension of the bomb blast last night can be seen when we reached the office where our bags are throughly checked by the security guard for any conceal weapons of destrution.

Here is a news clipping of the news in the local news site:

A bomb explosion at an entrance of the House of Representatives in Quezon City on Tuesday evening killed three people, including Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar, and injured at least seven others.

The National Police and the Armed Forces immediately went on full alert.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered Director General Avelino Razon, National Police chief, to personally lead the investigation of the explosion. The President said Razon should "submit periodic reports as warranted."

In a nationwide telecast late Tuesday evening, the President called for sobriety.

Director Geary Barias, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office, said the driver of Gabriela party-list Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan was also killed in the explosion. The driver was identified as Marcial Talbo.

Maan Bustalino, a staff member of Negros Oriental Rep. Pryde Henry Teves, who was also injured in the explosion, expired while being transfered from Malvar General Hospital on Commonwealth Avenue to the St. Luke's Medical Center on E. Rodriguez Sr. boulevard. She was rerouted to the Capitol Medical Center on Quezon Avenue instead where she was pronounced dead.

Teves, 34, is a nephew of Finance Secretary Margarito Teves and a grandson of his predecessor, Rep. Herminio G. Teves.

Bustalino, who is from Dipolog City, is in her early-30's. She is taking up law at the University of the Philippines - Diliman.

She has worked at Congress since the time of the finance secretary when he was still a congressman. She is a relative of the Teveses.

The explosion went off as the House ended its session at past 8 p.m.

"At this point in time I'm saying it's a bomb, but I can't say what type of bomb," said Razon.

Police investigators suspect the bomb might have been placed on one of two parked motorcycles then remotely detonated as Akbar approached his car, fatally wounding him and ripping the motorcycles apart, Barias said.

"It looks like Congressman Akbar was the target," Barias said.

Akbar, a former governor of Basilan province and reportedly a former member of the Abu Sayyaf group, had claimed he was a target of his former comrades.

Some security officials have suspected that Akbar knew the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim radical group that has its roots on Basilan island. But they said he later had a falling out with Abu Sayyaf commanders and started fighting them.

Akbar also had political opponents, including those that ran against one of his wives who succeeded him as governor of Basilan.

The bomb went off as drivers were picking up lawmakers and their staff and damaged a number of cars outside the south wing entrance to the Batasan Pambansa building.

"I felt the blast although I was on the other side of the building. The ceiling of the canopy near the south wing entrance came down," Rep. Teodoro Casino told The Associated Press.

Rep. Joel Villanueva of the party-list Citizen's Battle Against Corruption said he was at the south wing of the building when he heard a "very loud explosion."

Witnesses said they saw a van and one or two vehicles burning after the explosion.

Razon said a destroyed motorcycle was found and experts were conducting chemical swabs on it to find out if it was used to carry the bomb.

Police cordoned off the massive House complex in suburban Quezon City shortly after the explosion.

"If this is terrorist action or work of an anarchist I'm sure it was deliberately done to cow us," House Speaker Jose de Venecia told reporters at the site.

Political tensions are high in the country. President Arroyo is facing a third impeachment complaint in as many years.

"We cannot rule out anything until the investigation is completed," De Venecia said. "There are many threats to us personally and officially. We will have to decide whether we have to augment security."

He said he will speak with the President "to inform her tonight that we will not be cowed by terrorists."

The Philippine capital has been jittery since last month, when an explosion damaged a shopping mall in the financial district of Makati, killing 11 people and injuring more than 100 others. A preliminary police report said it was an accident, although the owners of the mall disputed the finding.

Militants have bombed targets in the capital in the past.

Happy Deepavali 2007

2007-11-08T11:56:00.000+08:00

Staying in an apartment

2007-11-02T22:39:00.000+08:00

For a change, I moved into a service apartment during my stay in Manila. There were three of us in my assignment team and we managed to secure a 3-room apartment at Fraser's Place in Makati which is about 15 minutes walking distant from my office.

Fraser's Place, Makati

The 3 rooms apartment is more than 2,00 sq. ft. with a large living room, a large dinning room, a large kitchen, a washing area and a servant room. Staying in an apartment take the loneliness I have when staying alone in a hotel room. We get to cook ... instant noodles (or if we have the chance and skills we can cook up something more decent), have a big 2 door fridge to keep our stuff and a washing machine and dryer to do our own laundry. Even though there is laundry service, the three of us took turn to do out own laundry.. the only thing we did not like is the ironing of the cloths.

The very large living room

The dinning room is at the end of the living room

The washing machine and dryer side by side

The very large kitchen with a 2 door fridge

The apartment has to be rented on a monthly basis to get the full worth of it. It is cheaper to stay in the apartment than a hotel room taking the cost of three rooms in an apartment against three rooms in a hotel.

The only draw back is the lousy breakfast they serve. Breakfast is just normal omelette, bread and some other stuff unlike the various varieties of food to choose from in the restaurant of the hotel. The other thing is housekeeping is not available on Sundays and public holidays so we better keep the apartment clean to cover the days when housekeeping is not available.

Overall, I am beginning to enjoy my stay in the apartment more than my stay in the hotel room.

Kimi Raikkonen is F1 World Champion

2007-10-22T09:53:00.000+08:00

The showdown of this year's Formula 1 was decided in a three cornered fight between Hamilton, Alonso and Raikkonen in the final race of the year at Interlagos, Brazil.

The race was the best race I have seen so far and Ferrari took 1-2 position with Raikkonen winning the race and the World Championship my a mere 1 point from Alonso. Hamilton had some bad luck at the start of the race and also missed a gear shift. Hamilton ended in 7th position.

But 4 hours later, the race steward were checking on the fuel samples of BMW (Heifield and Kubica) and Williams (Rosberg). If they are penalised for the fuel used Hamilton will move from 7th to 4th position which would make Hamilton the champion.

Luckily, the steward choose not to penalised the teams even though there was discrepancy in the fuel sample.

In my opinion, Raikkonen should be the world champion taking into consideration that he has the most number of wins for the year. Hamilton is still young and still have opportunity to have a shot at the championship in the coming season.

Explosion in Makati - I am safe

2007-10-22T09:12:00.000+08:00

Last Friday at 1.30 p.m. there was an explosion at Glorietta, a popular shopping mall in Makati. The place is located about 500 meters from the hotel that I am staying.

I just want to inform that I am safe in Manila. At the time of the explosion was I came back from lunch from other place, Greenbelt 1 which about 1 kilometers from the place of incident.

The explosion caused the death of 8 people and injuries to more than 100 people. Initially, it was reported that the cause of if the fire was due to explosion of LPG tanks, a few hours later, it was reported that the explosion was caused by a bomb. The police found traces of chemical used to make C4 explosive.

Today's paper reported that the total death now stand at 9 and the explosion may not be cause by a bomb.. I will wait and see the final report.

My first teddy bear

2007-10-14T16:16:00.000+08:00

The time of the year is drawing near, and I would not be at home on that day. So I decide to celebrate the day earlier with my family. What am I taking about? Well my birthday is coming soon but I will be in Manila on my birthday. So I decided to celebrate the date with my family before flying off.

I booked a table at Souled Out to have dinner there with my family on 13th October. Luckily I did the reservation early because all the table were packed because it was a holiday.. Hari Raya Adil Fitri.

I was caught by surprise when my children presented me with a brown box with Cool Bear Workshop written on it. They told me that it is my birthday present. I opened it and was surprised that it turned out to be a cool teddy bear dressed up in a cool outfit. They told me that they have commissioned the making of the teddy bear at a shop where you can customised the bear by choosing whether it is a male or female and at the same time choose the outfit for it too. But the best thing was when they told me to press the centre of the bear.. a recorded greeting of the sound of my three children saying "Happy birthday Papa". I was very touched by the gift because it has been chosen by my children and at the same time, this is the first teddy bear that have been presented to me. I love the gift very much especially it was given to me by my children who have taken the trouble and effort to give it to me on my birthday.

I told them that I will bring the bear along when I travel so that I can hear their voices when I am away fr0m home and it will not not make me home sick.

To celebrate my birthday, my wife presented me with a lovely and costly belt. I presented myself with a PSP. Well yeah.. finally I got myself a PSP. This was after consideration of whether to get myself an Apple iPod or not. The PSP is a better choice since I can play games, listen to music, view videos and do much more things than an iPod. At the same time, I also another unit of PSP for my son.. that makes 2 PSPs.. one for me and one for my son. He too was yearning to have a PSP and he was also the one who has influenced me to get one.

Now going to Manila for a long duration of time would not be bored since I will have my teddy bear and my PSP by my side.

A day at Pavilion KL

2007-09-29T23:56:00.000+08:00

While browsing through the Flickr album of Soo HK, I happened to see some photos of models on the runway of a fashion show at Pavilion. I asked Soo whether there will be any more fashion show at Pavilion. He mentioned that the even will be still be on for this weekend. I told him that I wanted to go for a photo shoot of the fashion show at this new shopping mall which just opened on 20 September 2007. He said that he would be there too to practice shooting with his new Canon 40D camera. That's great and it would be the first time that we will be meeting face to face after being virtual friends for the past 2 years.

Pavilion is the newest mall to be opened in the city and it is located where the former Bukit Bintang Girl School was located. The school has since been moved to Shamelin area to allow the building of this massive project. The fashion show was the attraction to lure visitors to this new mall.

My children came along with me to Pavilion. They were strolling around the mall while I waited for the fashion show events to start and to shoot the models on the runway. I managed to meet up with Soo and he was not alone too, his wife from Bangkok was with him too. We had our chat and it was great to met up with him.

Lunch time, my children and I went down to the Level 1 where are many restaurants but there are still many undergoing renovation. We finally ended up at aIchiban Boshi. This restaurant has the longest sushi conveyor belt in the city. The sushi was fresh and terrific but cost a bit more than Genki Sushi. We were all full after having 14 plates of sushi and a bowl of ramen.

Here are some photos of the sushi:

After shooting 4 session of fashion shows (G2000, Focus Point, MNG and Topshop), I ran out of storage. I finished 2 CF cars totaling 3GB because I shot all in RAW format. We decided to make a move home and I got a surprise. The parking fee from 11.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. cost me RM11-50... very expensive lor!!!

See the photos of the fashion show at my Flickr Album.

My Filipino Angels

2007-09-27T00:19:00.000+08:00

It has been a while since I did some posting to this blog. I have been kept busy in my project in Manila for the past 20 days. I am finally back home today after a long flight which was delayed for more than one hour.

It has been fun at Manila for the past 20 days even though most of my time is at the office from 8.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. Why? Because I have been working with 5 lovely Angels. I call them my Filipino Angels.

Let me introduce them, the 5 Angels consist of Carmina, Donna, Shiela, Bernadine and Roxanne (who is also known as Yahoo). These girls were the project team officers have have been diligently working to ensure the success of the project which is still on going. They are young and energetic and I have fun working with them.

Here are two photos I have taken of the Angels. I promised them that I will be back to see them after coming back to KL. Actually come to think of it.. I am missing them already.

Here 4 of the 5 Angels - clockwise - Donna, Roxanne, Shiela and Bernadine

All the five of them with me in the middle , clockwise - Carmina, Bernadine, Sheila, Donna and Roxanne

Makati skyline

2007-09-15T11:28:00.000+08:00

Some photos of Makati skyline taken from the window of my hotel. This time I manage to secure a room at the 22nd floor of the hotel with a great view. However, I could not enjoy it much because I am at work in the day and by the time I am back, it is already night. I should have brought along by DSLR where I can capture the night lights!!

Defibrillator at KLIA

2007-09-14T09:56:00.000+08:00

I am pleased that KLIA is voted as one of the best airports in the world. I do enjoy coming to the airport early while waiting for my flight. Their waiting lounges are very comfortable and Wi-Fi is provided free where I can surf the net when time permits me.

While walking around the airport, I noticed that there was a defibrillator unit being hung on one of the pillars. This is the first unit I have ever seen at any places I have been too. The unit will come in very handy should there be a need to use it on a person who has a heart attack. But then again I wonder how many of us knows how to use a defibrillator!!

In Manila again

2007-09-08T15:37:00.000+08:00

I am in Manila again. The project time line was like a yo-yo, early on the time line was longer and suddenly it was shorten.

When I got to know that the time line was lengthen, I could find time to relax in Kl before my journey to Manila. Just out of a sudden and over a weekend, I was informed that the time time was back to status quo. My project task was again shorten and I was required to go into action.

I took the Thursday flight and started working on the same day immediately after checking into the hotel and 5.00 p.m.

I am now currently writing this post in the office where I am required to work through the weekend to get thing moving. But the agony is that my support staff would only arrive middle and end of next week and there are so much things to get prepared. So it looks like another not stop busy 2 weeks for me in Manila.

I hope that I can put in some time to get catch some photos of place which I can visit.

MIFC - 30 August (31 August) 2007

2007-08-31T20:38:00.000+08:00

Another night again at the MIFC. This time around the event is held on the eve of Hari Merdeka, many people will be there to see the fireworks competition. I took a days leave not because of the wanting to be there but my children are also having their school holiday.

We started our journey to Putrajaya very early.. 6.30 p.m. and by the time we reach PICC at 7.00 p.m there were already photographers placed their tripods at the Mezzanine floor getting ready to photo shoot the fireworks event which starts at 12.00 p.m. Yeah.. you read right 12.00 p.m. 5 hours of waiting before we can start to shoot the fireworks.

The waiting finally ended when the countdown to Merdeka by the DJ and then the fireworks from Team Japan started to fire off. I did not like the photos that were captured, there was too much smoke where it interfered with the colours of the fireworks. At the same time, the fireworks pattern were too constant where the same design were fired off many many times.

After show was over we did not take off strait away home because we knew that there will be a terrible terrible jam ahead of us. So we sat in the leather sofa in PICC for almost 1 hour to rest our legs after standing for more than four hours straight.

In the end we managed to reached home at 2.00 a.m. and I woke up at 9.30 a,m. this morning but the night's (morning's) sleep was not enough I ended having afternoon naps.

Here are some of the shots I took for events.

Two shots taken before the sun sets

Happy Independence Day.. MALAYSIA!!

2007-08-31T09:47:00.000+08:00

Untitled Document

Merdeka!Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

Happy Merdeka Wish to ALL Malaysian!!!

Flickriver - My Photos

2007-08-28T23:34:00.000+08:00

Found this very nice tool to see my photos in my flickr ablum. Click on the link below to experience a new way to see my photos.

MIFC - 25 August 2007

2007-08-26T23:57:00.000+08:00

I was at the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition again on Saturday. It was the turn of the Italian to show what fire power they have. This time around my children were also during the show. We left home at 7.45 p.m. , I have the feeling there will be many people flocking to Putrajaya to see the fireworks since it was a Saturday and the news of how spectacular the fireworks has been effectively been publicized. True enough, there were so many cars on the road leading to Putrajaya.

I went up to the Putrajaya International Convention Centre by paying RM10 for the parking. The car [ark was full and I knew that I have to quickly get on to the Mezzanine floor to grab a place to put my tripod and also get a good view for my children. Even though there are already many people there, we were lucky to have a spot where we can get a good view overlooking the bridge and the firing area of fireworks.

The fireworks started at exactly 10.00 p.m. The Italian have a spectacular fireworks that managed to become heart and star shape when it burst in the skies. The ending was an explosive one where all hell broke loose. The fireworks managed to light up the whole sky and the photo captured was only a plain white patch (due to the bright fireworks and long exposure time).

As usual, the traffic jam was another nightmare. This time, the jam was worse. We managed to reach home at 2.00 a.m. after supper at a nearby mamak shop.

The next big bang will be the Japanese Team on 30 August where the fireworks will start at 12.00 midnight to coincide with Hari Merdeka. I would expect a much bigger crowd then.

Here are some of the photos of the show. See many more photos are my Flickr Album.

Foreign Cows in Putrajaya

2007-08-26T09:19:00.000+08:00

It was the worse traffic jam that I have ever experienced in Putrajaya last night (25 August) after Team Italy's fireworks display. Tried going to Dengkil.. long queue jam, turned backed to try Kajang way.. again the same result. It was almost one hour of circling around that me and my children finally ended back at the PICC and was driving towards the Government offices. Suddenly we saw a bunch of aliens.. alien cows.

Colourful painted cows at the Ministry of Agriculture. It turned out that there were 28 beautifully coloured "European" fiberglass cows that were part of a tour of Malaysia starting at the Putrajaya.

The cows – known as the European Union Herd of Cows – are painted by artists and school children using typical national symbols for each country in the union. Each cow weighs around 300kg.

We could not help ourselves and stopped at the place for snap shots.

Look into my eyes

2007-08-25T09:07:00.000+08:00

One of the shots taken during my trip to the KL Bird Park on 19 August 2007.

Malaysia International Fireworks Competition - 22 August 2007

2007-08-23T10:50:00.000+08:00

The Australian Team took the stage on 22 August 2007 for the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition. This time around I bought a ticket which entitled me to be at the Ground Floor of the PICC which is one floor above where I stood during the first night of the competition on 18 August 2007. There were many people who came to Putrajaya to see the fireworks. Many of them were at PICC but most of them were scattered all over the Putrajaya grounds.

The nice thing about being on the ground floor is that I am able to listen to the soundtrack that accompany the fireworks where the sound and the fireworks would synchronize with each other. The full fireworks show lasted 20 minutes. The Australian team's fireworks was spectacular. I would say that it is better than the Malaysian Team. But there are still 2 other teams (Japan and Italy) to compete when the final results would be known.

Here are 15 of the best shots taken during the event.

The finale of the show where all hell (fireworks) broke loose!!!

The bird which love to pose

2007-08-21T16:34:00.000+08:00

This was the bird which was not camera shy at all and love to pose when I was shooting at it. See the different way it head and eyes were:

Fire at Red Dragon Hostel (formerly Rex Cinema)

2007-08-20T14:55:00.000+08:00

I was on my way to have breakfast at Petaling Street when we saw smoke coming out of the roof of the former Rex cinema in Jalan Sultan. Within minute, a fire and rescue truck has arrived. My son who have not witness a building fire was curious about the incident. At the same time, I have my camera with me, it would be interesting to take some photos of the incident.

The Red Dragon Hostel which was once the landmark of the Rex cinema in Jalan Sultan is the place of accommodation for backpackers. All of them managed to flee the place with their items and most of them were seen at the side of the place when the fire occurred.

I can still remember and have told my son that the former Rex cinema was a frequent place that I go to watch shows after school. But the original Rex cinemawas operated by the Shaw Brothers was burnt down in early 1970s. At the time during the incident, the last show that the cinema was showing was "Gone in 60 seconds". The Rex cinema was then really burnt down within 60 seconds. The cinema was then rebuilt and commence for business in 1976 where it was equipped with the best cinema equipment in town and once again there were many patrons to the cinema. However, with the video boom back in the 80's, the number of patrons started to lessen, the cinema was closed in 2002. The Rex cinema was then turned into a hostel instead.

The fire was brought down within an hour and there were many on lookers there which include me and my son.

Here are some of the photos taken during the incident.

Busy Sunday - Trip to the KL Bird Park

2007-08-19T23:34:00.000+08:00

It has been a busy and exciting Sunday. My son and I had breakfast at Petaling Street and I brought my camera along. There was a fire at the former Rex Cinema in Jalan Sultan and the fire and rescue department came to put out the fire. Photos and the story of the incident is coming soon.

After breakfast, we went over to the KL Bird Park. It has been some time since we went there. Since I got my camera, I decided to snap some shots of the birds there. The last time I was there I have not bought my current D70s. So it was timely to test out the camera.

Here are some shots of the trip.

Photos from MIFC

2007-08-19T18:51:00.000+08:00

As promised, here are some of the photos taken on the first night of the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition. The fireworks were from Team Malaysia.More spectacular photos are available at Flickr Photo Album at http://flickr.com/kokkuen.

This is my favorite shot

Malaysia International Fireworks Competition - Day 1

2007-08-18T23:50:00.000+08:00

Today (18 September) is the first day of the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition (MIFC) which is held in conjunction of the 50th Independence Day celebration. The competition will be held from 18 September 2007 to 2 September 2007 where there are four (4) nations competing - Malaysia, Australia, Italy and Japan. The venue of the competition is at Putrajaya International Convention Centre where the fireworks will be fired off from the lake in front of the centre. The centre have a great view over the Seri Gemilang Bridge.

I took off from home at 7.00 p.m. to ensure myself a good spot to shoot the event. Once I arrived, there were many other photographers all ready for the fireworks shoot. I managed to get a place facing the centre of the bridge. I set up my tripod and camera and at the same time managed to share some tips from other photographers on the optimum set up for shooting fireworks show. Most of us were "armed" with Nikon SLRs so there were no problems in sharing the information. To ensure I decided to shoot in RAW.

The opening ceremony started at about 9.30 a.m. where there were speeches read out but I was unable to get a word outof what was said. The fireworks competition started at about 9.50 p.m. and the first team for the night is Team Malaysia. The fireworks were shot out from the banks of the lake and the presentation was great. Since each shot would require an exposure of about 10 seconds and processing time would take another 5 seconds, shooting the fireworks competion was slow but it allowed me some time to enjoy it. The fireworks show lasted for about half and hour but about 20 minutes into the show my camera battery became weak and I did not manage to maximize shooting the whole event.

After the show, it's time to go home. Well it was not only me who is going home... for the first time I was caught in a jam in Putrajaya. All along the way driving back home, the 3 lane highway were packed with cars.

I reached home at about 11.30. Since the shots are in RAW, I do not have much time to process most of them. More photos will be publish tomorrow when I start to process it.

Tomorrow night, I would be going there again to shoot Team Global.

Girls.. you can now do it standing!!!

2007-08-18T17:24:00.000+08:00

Came across this advertisement where it is selling a "funnel" to enable female to ease themselve while standing... ehhh just like a male. Ignore the last photo.. you won't get to see this !!

Just some sex facts

2007-08-07T23:45:00.000+08:00

I found these sex facts (or fiction) quite interesting:

BODY

94% of men lie about their penis size. According to condom manufacturers, only 6% of men
need to use extra large condoms.
The average man is 4-5 inches long when erect; no matter what you have heard
ladies, that's the truth. Incidentally the average vaginal capacity is only 6 inches, for you women who think you can handle king dong.
80% of American men are circumsized, though Pediatrics say it is not necessary.
No matter what all the ads say nothing but time can make your penis grow. (most men reach the end of their growth by the early 20's)
There is no correlation between penis size and shoe size, hand size, or nose size.
Blue balls does exist! It's technically called "prostatic congestion."
Only 16% of men shave their privates.

THINGS MEN MIGHT WANT TO KNOW

Only 9% of women around the globe consider themselves "attractive" (20% of British women do). 43% of women use the term "natural", 24% say they have "average" looks, 8% prefer the term "feminine", 7% say they are "good looking", and 7% say they are "cute", and finally only 2% of women say they are "sexy".
An estimated 85% of women wear the wrong size bra.
60% of women have had breast implants.
75% of women like getting humped(Vulgar Slang The act or an instance of having sexual intercourse.)
95% of women shave their privates.

A FEW THINGS YOU BOTH MIGHT WANT TO KNOW

Masturbation is healthy for both men and women.
70% of high schoolers have had sex before they have graduated. 27% lose their virginity senior prom night. Only 3% wait until marriage.
95% of men would have sex with a girl after 1 month of dating. Only 10% of women feel this way.
Teens are most likely to have sex for the first time in June.
First-time intercourse is often unplanned, meaning it's less likely teens will use contraception.
Virginity is often lost with a person they haven't been dating.

5 REASONS WHY SEX IS GOOD!

It is a good workout. Sex burns about 150 calories every half an hour. It will lower your cholesterol and improve breathing circulation.
You won't get sick. According to research if you have sex 1-2 times a week. You are less likely to get sick.
You'll feel happier. You will feel a greater sense of well-being. Women who have more sex were clinically proven to be less depressed than women who don't have sex.
Makes you look better; problem is that ugly people don`t get any. Sex releases hormones which make your skin and hair softer and shinier and tone your physique.
The best reason: You will live longer. Studies prove that sex makes you live longer. Men who had sex 1-2 times a week, had half the death rate as those who did not indulge themselves at least once a month. It also makes you look younger. If you have sex 3 times a week you may look up to 10 years younger than you really are.

SOME THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE KNOWN

Having sex 3 times a week for 1 year = Running 75 miles!

Chun Li with the other super heros were in town!!!

2007-08-06T20:38:00.001+08:00

On 28 August all the Superheros gathered at Sunway Resort & Spa for the Annual event of "The Magical World of Cartoons". My friend Pauline has got herself dressed up for the theme at Chun Li, one of the characters from "The Street Fighters". It was a great effort taken by her to gather all the necessary materials to enable her to resemble Chun Li. The wardrobe was tailor-made to be similar to the character. The white boots were bought in Singapore during her outing there during the Grand Singapore Sale. The studded bangle were handmade by her. She has commissioned a hairdresser to dress up her hair with the matching white ribbons tying up her hair buns.

During the gathering at Sunway, she managed to pose with other superhero characters like Davy Jones (is he a cartoon character?), Batwoman and many other characters. She even managed to have a battle with The Thing (guess who won).

She has given me permission of publish her photos in my blog.

Who is who?

Gathering of cartoon characters???

The battle rages on with The Thing

Hey, Bumble Bee of Transformers?.. Transform lah!!!

Davy Jones out of the seas.. must have came from Sunway Lagoon

Feeling Patriotic

2007-08-06T20:23:00.000+08:00

The country is celebrating its 50 years of Independence this August 31. Feeling patriotic I started to come out with some banners to brighten my blog and at the same time show how proud I am being a Malaysian.

The banners are simple using shots I have taken during the fireworks display during the New Year at KLCC and images of the Jalur Gemilang and finally the Merdeka logo. Here are the banners that I have created for the past few days:

Why People Have Sex: 237 Reasons

2007-08-05T12:19:00.000+08:00

Why do people have sex? A new study counts the ways and comes up with 237 reasons.

The study comes from Cindy Meston, PhD, and David Buss, PhD, of the psychology department at the University of Texas at Austin.

First, they asked 203 men and 241 women aged 17-52 in Austin, Texas, to anonymously list every reason they had ever had sex. Those men and women were taking psychology classes or were participating in other studies at the Sexual Psychophysiology Laboratory of the University of Texas.

All in all, participants listed 715 reasons for having sex. The researchers deleted repetitions, boiling the list down to 237 reasons. Follow this link for the details of the study.

Next, Meston and Buss presented the list to 1,549 psychology students and asked them to rate how often, if ever, they had had sex for each of the 237 reasons.

9 Leading Reasons for Having Sex

The researchers identified nine broad themes that characterize the students' top reasons for having sex:

Pure attraction to the other person in general
Experiencing physical pleasure
Expressing love
Having sex because of feeling desired by the other
Having sex to escalate the depth of the relationship
Curiosity or seeking new experiences
Marking a special occasion for celebration
Mere opportunity
Sex just happening due to seemingly uncontrollable circumstances

The study also highlights five general themes that were least frequently cited by the students.

Those themes included wanting to harm another person (their partner, rival, or a stranger), getting resources (such as a job, money, drugs, or gifts), enhancing social status, using sex as a means to a seemingly unrelated end (such as relieving a headache), or having sex out of duty or pressure.

Top 10 Reasons Why Women Have Sex

Here are women's top 10 reasons for having sex:

I was attracted to the person.
I wanted to experience the physical pleasure.
It feels good.
I wanted to show my affection to the person.
I wanted to express my love for the person.
I was sexually aroused and wanted the release.
I was "horny."
It's fun.
I realized I was in love.
I was "in the heat of the moment."

Top 10 Reasons Why Men Have Sex

In the study, men's top 10 reasons for having sex are quite similar to the women's list. Here are men's top 10 reasons for having sex, according to the study:

I was attracted to the person.
It feels good.
I wanted to experience the physical pleasure.
It's fun.
I wanted to show my affection to the person.
I was sexually aroused and wanted the release.
I was "horny."
I wanted to express my love for the person.
I wanted to achieve an orgasm.
I wanted to please my partner.

I think the answers are very obvious. The conclusion.. everyone one need sex for one thousand and one reasons.

Lazy and busy

2007-08-05T11:54:00.000+08:00

It has been a hectic week in Manila. As I have mentioned, I landed on Sunday in Manila. Everyday of the week was occupied with the staff at Manila office in planning of the project.

This time around I stayed in Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The name of the hotel sounded great but do not be fooled. The condition of the hotel is a bit run down with smelly carpet and cracking wallpaper. The room cost me USD103-00 before VAT and tax and I consider it not cheap. Furthermore, the hotel was located a distance from my Manila office and the malls. The only concession was that there was daily transportation taking me from the hotel to office and back to the hotel in the evening. Having my meals is a hassle because there were limited restaurants near the hotel. The last night of of stay, my colleagues and I landed ourselves a a Koren restaurant called Kaya. The cost of the bill came up to PHP2,700 which is about RM210.

Flew back to KL on Friday and reached home about 10.30 p.m.

Nothing much happened for the week end. I have been lazying at home watching the TV and on the internet.

Mabuhay from Manila

2007-07-31T14:10:00.000+08:00

Greetings from Manila.

Landed here in Sunday and will be here for the next few days. Did not bring my camera, so no photos to be posted. Another hectic stay in Manila just like last month.

The good wins - The Harry Porter book saga

2007-07-24T23:27:00.000+08:00

Finally, the 3 bookstores agree to sell the book Harry Porter and the Deadly Hallows for RM69.90. As I have guessed, what will the publisher do with the stock of books that were printed and order. Instead of a total loss, the bookstores might as well sell the stock of book to cut their losses.

Incidentally, the controversy over the Harry Porter book also sparked off an article in The Star mentioning that the hypermarkets should not have sold the book at such a low price. The bookstores are not making much money as they are only selling books, magazines and stationery as compared with the hypermarkets are selling everything under the sun. When people go over to the hypermarket to buy the book, they would have also visit the hypermarkets to get other stuff. The loss in profit due to the low price in which the hypermarket is selling would be covered by the profit derived from the sale of other items in the hypermarket.

Read the article below:

Price discount a marketing ploy

THE LOCAL WEATHER
By UMAPAGAN AMPIKAIPAKAN

American entrepreneur King Gillette famously invented the loss leader business model, in which razors were sold at a loss so that his company could profit by selling disposable razor blades.

IT WAS around about two o'clock on Saturday afternoon by the time I finally made my way to the Twin Towers.

And it was with very little resolve that I then sauntered softly up to the top floor of Suria, to what has long become my second home.

Kinokuniya Books was heaving. The queue to the check-out was longer than I had ever experienced and everyone in it was, by now, at least on chapter two.

I waited patiently for my turn. In my hand were a Bloomsbury children’s edition (I could never understand the pretence of having an edition with an “Adult” cover) and my 20% discount voucher.

I stood in line, with neither the excitement nor the fanfare of those around me. Having grown up with C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, the Star Wars movies, and more recently, Philip Pullman’s trilogy of Dark Materials, I found myself barely affected by the ensuing phenomenon.

Regardless, the purchase of this last volume was obligatory. It was something that needed to be done. It was a lot like reading Proust. You force your way through to the bitter end unsure of why you’re even doing it because you’re too busy pretending that it’s a classic.

Whether it is a rite of passage or a necessary evil, I am yet to decide. But it is however, a conclusion to that which I had started almost ten years ago.

Now getting my hands on the RM109.90 (RM87.92 with my 20% discount voucher) copy of the book was easy enough. Queues and crowds aside, it proved to be a simple enough undertaking.

Alas, this was not the case for many Malaysians. Because if you had woken up on Saturday morning with the hope of buying yourselve a copy of the book from your local MPH, Times, Popular, or Harris bookstore, you would have been greatly disappointed.

The four major bookstore chains, in what was supposedly an act of protest, refused to stock the latest book on the boy wizard following an announcement that the Tesco and Carrefour hypermarkets would be selling the book at RM40 off the cover price.

Because, instead of facing up to their competition, the four major booksellers in the country decided to throw a strop. There was huffing and there was puffing. There was pouting and there was the stomping of feet.

But most of all, there were the thousands of disappointed customers – most of them children.

Now when running a business, it is probably a good rule of thumb to not turn away potential customers. Pushing them in the direction of your competitors is also not common practice. Maybe it’s time to rethink your day job.

We Malaysians do not read. If we do, it’s usually some trashy magazine we’re clutching while crouching in a corner at the local Borders. We hardly ever buy books. If we do, it’s usually for school.

It’s because we as a society haven’t done enough to instil a reading culture. It’s because books are too expensive, and therefore a luxury that many cannot afford. It’s because libraries are far and few between, and even these are under-funded and under-stocked.

But, for some reason, through some perfect combination of clever marketing, global hype, and mediocre storytelling, this “scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy” seems to have awakened the slumbering bookworm in many Malaysians, an achievement to which the four major booksellers in the country have effectively turned their backs on.

People want to read. All they’ve done is make it that much harder. Maybe now they’ll stop their whining about how unprofitable the book business is.

To MPH Bookstores, Times the Bookshop, Popular Bookstores, and Harris Bookstores, I only have this to say: “Bad form!”

The reason the hypermarkets can offer such an “indiscriminate” price discount is really just basic marketing strategy. The American entrepreneur King Gillette famously invented the loss leader business model, in which razors were sold at a loss so that his company could profit by selling disposable razor blades.

In the case of Tesco and Carrefour, they could make a loss on the books in an effort to draw customers into their stores where they are likely to buy other goods. It is much the same with McDonald’s and their value meals, with movie theatres and popcorn, and with Sony and their PlayStation 3.

Now, what Tesco and Carrefour have done isn’t new; and it isn’t by any means noble. I do however applaud them for their effort, as cheaper books mean more people can afford to read.

Darren's journey to the Optician

2007-07-23T21:41:00.000+08:00

Last Monday, my son Darren approached me and said "Papa, are you free on Sunday?". I said yes and asked him the reason for asking me. He said that he could not see clearly the writing on the white board in his class and requested me to bring him to the Optician to have a check on his eyes.

On Saturday I brought him to an optical shop at Leisure Mall, the same shop where I did my glass to have his eyes checked. I requested the shop assistant to check Darren's sight to see whether he is short sighted. The machine came out with a reading that he was short sighted on both his eye. The level of short sightedness was minimal and he could afford not to wear corrective glasses at the moment. Darren said that he wanted to get a pair of glasses to give him the comfort when he is attending his classes. So I agreed to make him a pair of glasses.

Since the machine reading was a guide of his short sightedness, he would require to be examine by an Optician to have an accurate reading of his short sightedness. However, the refractor room was occupied, so he began to choose a frame for his glass. Wow, I was surprise by the glass frame that he has chosen. Some were way too fashionable for him to wear in school. I am sure that the teachers would disagree with those fashionable type of lens frames. In the end he found one which is simple and practical.

Off he went into the refractor room to have his eyes examine by the Optician. The readings of his short sightedness by the Optician were a bit higher than that read by the machine. So, the reading was confirmed and there was stock of the lenses in the shop. The lenses can be fitted to the frame within an hour's time.

Darren having his eyes examined by the Optician

An hour later, he was trying on his new glasses and he looks good with them. Here a photo of him with the glasses.

He is now happy wearing his glasses in school and he told me that could now see clearly what is written on the white board of his class.

Ferrari 430 Scuderia

2007-07-23T16:35:00.000+08:00

The new Ferrari 430 Scuderia will be unveile at the Frankfurt Motor Show by none other than Micheal Schumacher. The new Ferrari is a 4308cc V8's 510 hp at 8500 rpm and has all the F1 software with a new traction control system.

Ferrari 430 Scuderia has the same 510-horsepower V8 engine as the 430 coupe and spider models.

Ferrari's latest, the 430 Scuderia.

New Ferrari 430 Scuderia will be presented by racing champion Michael Schumacher at the Frankfurt show in September.

Ferrari 430 Scuderia is a lightweight model, 220 pounds lighter than the standard F430 and intended for "passionate and sports-driving-oriented clients."

But the technology is intense, including Ferrari's Superfast F1 software that cuts gearshifts to 60 milliseconds.

The cost of the new 430 Scuderia will likely be in the USD200,000 range.

Ferrari 430 Scuderia is a minimalist version, with few interior "trimmings," says Ferrari.

Battle of the good and evil

2007-07-23T16:00:00.000+08:00

The battle between the bookstores and the hypermarkets over the book Harry Porter and the Deadly Hallows was like a battle between the good and evil.

But the question is who is the good and who is evil?

Well in the beginning the good were the bookstores who took the liberty to take advance orders for the last book of the Harry Porter trilogy at RM109.90). But the bookstores' evil intentions were exposed when the hypermarkets started to sell the same book at a much lower price (RM69.90).

The battle continues when the bookstores realised that their evil intentions would backfired. They went for a press release to say that they no longer would sell the book and all activities related to the book release were cancelled.

However, were the hypermarkets the hero or the villains? Well I would say that the hypermarkets were the hero in selling the books at a discount of RM40-00 per book where more people can afford to get a copy. Now I start to wonder what will happen to all those unsold books that the bookstores have ordered. Will there be another price war???

Die Harder Harry Porter!!

2007-07-15T16:19:00.000+08:00

I killed two movies in a day. None of my family members were interested in watching Die Hard 4.0 I decided to watch the movie on my own since I was lazing on Saturday. At the same time, I planned to take the family out to watch the latest Harry Porter trilogy, Harry Porter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Die Hard 4.0 is where our hero John MaClane (Bruce Willis) saved his country from a criminal plot is in place to take down the entire computer and technological structure that supports the economy of the United States. As in the other Die Hard trilogy, you expect to see car crashes, flying objects (cars, planes and helicopters) and blood. There was no stop action from the start to the end of the movie. However, there are some unconvincing parts where the movie magic did not manage to excite me. There was a scene where the helicopter was chasing and shooting his car where he smash into a fire hydrant. The water from the water hydrant shot up to the helicopter can dislodged the shooter from the helicopter to the ground. How accurate and lucky could such an incident happen??? But I was impressed by our Miss Maggie Q. She plays the part of Mai Linh, the girlfriend of the villain Gabriel. Wow, she is a tough cookie and can really match John MaClane in fights using her kung fu skills. But the best part was she managed to stay on to a SUV where John MaClane drove into her all the way to the elevator shaft!!

At night, took the family to watch Harry Porter and the Order of the Phoenix. Since the movie was just premiered on July 11, getting tickets for the movie would not be easy which is why I decided to buy the tickets early when I went to watch Die Hard 4.

As usual the battle between Harry Porter and Lord Voldemort still has not come to an end. The movie started off with Harry Porter was almost expelled from Hogwarts for using his spell in front of a muggle. This time around we have a "bitch" running Hogwarts. She's Professor Dolores Umbridge who was sent by the Ministry. This time around there was a kissing scene between Harry and Cho Chang. The best part was when Ron and Hermoine asked Harry how was the kiss. Harry replied "It was wet!!!". As in the previous Harry Porter movies, the ending is where we see the good battle with the evil. All hell broke loose where Sirus Black was killed and Professor Dumbledore was the only one who can hold back the attacks of Lord Voldemort. In this movie, we learned about the prophecy that in order for Harry Porter to survive, Lord Voldemort must die or the other way around. So the next offering of the Harry Potter trilogy will give us the anwer on who will die and who will survive. If you cant's wait, go and get the book which should be in the bookstores on 21 July.

Transformer - The Movie

2007-07-08T22:32:00.000+08:00

The long awaited Transformer - The Movie premiered on 26 June. Before the movie premiered, my son has requested that I take him to watch the show. But I was on assignment in Manila when it premiered in KL. The moment I landed in KL on Saturday, he made a date with to take him to the movie. The next day we wanted to see the morning show at 11.00 a.m. so we took off to TGV in Cheras Selatan. There was already a long queue lining up to get their tickets. By the time we reached the box office, there were only singles tickets left. We left the place empty handed and disappointed.

To make it up to him, I promised that we will see the movie by the end of the week. So on last Friday (6 July) I managed tickets for the midnight show which starts at 11.30 p.m.. Naturally, being the eve of the weekend, the tickets were selling fast. I managed to secure 6 tickets for the family.

In the end.. wow.. it;s a great movie. The special effects were great and the sound was superb. Now I understand why there were so many people queue up to get a ticket to watch it.

More movies to wacth.. Die Hard 4 the continuing series of the Die Hard series and the new Harry Porter trilogy will premiere on July 11.

07-07-07

2007-07-07T18:38:00.000+08:00

Today, July 7 of the year 2007. All the numbers in the calendar came aligned. So what so special is today.

Well today I went for my company's 777 Bowling Tournament. All staff were requested for teams of 3 men and 3 women to battle it out at the bowling alley. The event was held at One Utama, where we have booked up all the 36 bowllng alley lanes to accommodate all teams participating in the events. It has been more than10 years since I have even bowled. It was out of fun where I was asked by my other colleagues to join in the event. Each of the team member have to bowl a total of 3 games. By the end of my first game, my left leg was already aching. In the even, I managed to pull through all the three games scoring slightly pass 100 points for each game. I did not stay for the prize giving ceremony since I know I am not one of the winner.

I need to rush back to bet myself prepared for another wedding dinner. Coincidentally, today is an auspicious day to get married or a date which can be easily remembered. According to the papers today, fifty couples are set to wed at the Buddhist Maha Vihara in Brickfileds while 121 couples will do so at the Klang Hokkien Association. Today's dinner was on the invitation of one my colleague, Rachel Tan.

Seven also plays something in my life too. I was born on 17 of the month, see the number seven. And I was born in the year of 1961, 6+1 = 7.

Photos from Manila

2007-07-01T12:38:00.001+08:00

To commemmorate the centennial of Dr Jose Rizal's martyrdom, the National Centennial Commission and the Department of Tourism have introduced Rizal's shoeprints embedded in the pavement and plaeed markers in areas where he passed on his way to Bagumidayan from his cell in Fort Santiago. Marking his last walk to martyrdom this centennial freedom trail memorizlizes his brave path to martyrdom in early hours of December 30, 1896 and symbolizes the birth of the Filipino nation.

One of the soldier statues around the Fort

Fort Santiago

My daily drink from the hotel's buffet bar

The entrance of Intramuros

Red water lily

Hectic week at Manila

2007-07-01T08:25:00.000+08:00

Flag of The Philippines at the Manila Bay area

It has been a week since I last posted that I was in Manila. My schedule there was tight as the team went to Manila to kick start our project there. Meetings were held with the Filipinos the whole day. We normally reached back to our hotel late at night. There was no time to go sight seeing or shopping even though the shopping malls were very near to our hotel.

In Manila, I stayed at the Renaissance Makati City Hotel which is located in the financial district of Manila City. In front of the hotel is the Greenbelt area.
Before I was in Manila, I thought that Greenbelt is a park but it turned out to be a large area of complexes of malls and restaurants where there are Greenbelt 1 to 4. Connecting the Greenbelt area with overhead bridges are other shopping complexes like The Landmark, Gorlietta and SM Mall. The shopping malls and restaurants in the area are packed with people even on weekdays. On weekends, the crowds got bigger.

One thing I like about about the Makati area that I was staying is that there is a long overhead bridge that interlinks all the places that I require to go like to the shopping malls and even up to the office in Ayala Avenue. Walking on the overhead bridge was safer and at the same time the I can view of the streets below which is packed with traffic. But the weather in Manila is very humid. A fifteen minute walk from the hotel to the office would make me sweating even though it is in the morning or evening.

Along the route to Fort Santiago taken from taxi

Another thing that caught me was the level of security in Manila. When I arrived at the hotel, my luggages were required by a dog and I was required to go through a metal detector before going into the hotel lobby. Similarly, security guards were stationed at the entrances of the shopping mall and office building. There would a door for entrance and exit and everyone entering the malls of offices were subjected to the screening and some with metal detectors. The security level made me feel like Manila is under high security threat but the locals are used to these style of life.

It was only on Saturday that I managed to have sometime to go around Manila. My flight was in the afternoon and I thought I would go to an interest tourist spot for a few hours before I head to the airport.

The local guidebooks recommended to go to Fort Santiago where the shrine of the Philippines national hero Jose Rizal lies. I engaged a taxi to take me there and he offered to take be to the other Intrauros area for Peso1,000 (about RM80). Along the way I managed to snap a few photos from the taxi. The first stop was at the Rizal Memorial, then to Fort Santiago and the church area. The whole journey took me about two and half hours. Some of the photos are are here while the bulk of it are posted at my Flickr photo album.

Rizal Memorial Fort Santiago

My flight back home was at 3.30 p.m. and I checked out of the hotel at noon reaching the airport in half an hour. From what I understand from the taxi drive there are three (3) Ninoy Aquino Airports which consist of 3 different terminals but only 2 of the terminals are function. The newest terminal which is nearer to the city was not opened due to so dispute between the Government and the people. When I reached the airport there were many passengers there in long queue going at the entrance. All luggages are to be screened at the x-ray machine before going to the check in counters. All the check-in counters were also queue with people. MAS opened up 5 counters for checking 2 flights going to Kuala Lumpur. After the check-in process, then I have proceed to the counter to pay the airport and security charge which cost me Peso 750. Then to the Immigration counter before going to the last security check before going to the board hall. I was caught by surprise at the security check. Every one was required to take off their shoes and belts which are required to be x-ray. Wow, this is the first country that I been to where the security check was so strict and stringent.

The flight to KL was 3 hours and 50 minutes and I reached from the airport at about 9.00 p.m.

Greeting from Manila

2007-06-25T10:50:00.000+08:00

I landed in Manila on Sunday afternoon. The flight was delayed by half an hour because the plane that was ferrying people from another destination reached late at KLIA and the plane need to be prepared for our flight to Manila.

This is my first trip to Manila and I was looking forward to see a new country. From the Ninoy Aquino Airport I travel to my hotel which is located in Makati which is the financial centre of Manila. Across the hotel, there were many malls, the biggest is the Greenbelt area where there are malls named Greenbelt 1 to 4. Then there was another shopping mall call Landmark and there is also SM. All the malls were connected by overhead bridge walk ways.

The weather was warm with slight rain. I come to understand that June to October is the raining season Philippines. I just hope that there will not be a typhoon during my 1 week stay here.

I had my dinner at a restaurant called Mr. Forrestor where I had their specialty which is boneless ribs. I took the opportunity to have the local beer, San Miguel (the photo is at the end of this posting)

Here are some shoots I have taken from my room and during my strolls around the Greenbelt and Landmark area.

Saturday 23 June 2007

2007-06-23T18:58:00.000+08:00

I could not think of a proper title to put in this posting so I just want to put int he day date of this posting.

I thought I could have a longer sleeping hour than normal (I wake at 6.00 a.m. from Monday to Friday) but I was required to send my son to his school's sport day at the football stadium. He is required to be present at the stadium at 7.30 a.m. and the event would end at about 11.00 a.m. I not too keen of staying too long at the stadium to watch the event because there are so many students running around, parents and family member roaming around and the events are boring. So I took along my camera just to take some candid shots.

While his sport events were on going, I sneak out of the stadium to go down to town. I have not been roaming in town for a long time since I was on my long assignment in Shanghai. At the same time, I need to perform some chores when I am there. It was still before 10.00 a.m. and the Bukit Bintang area was still not fully awake. The shops in the complexes were still not opened for business. I took the liberty to snap a few shoots on the street of Bukit Bintang.

After completing my chores at Bukit Bintang (what chores? well you will you later on in my future posting) I got back to the stadium thinking that the sport events would have ended. However, there was still the last events to be conducted... Teacher's events.

Well looking back, the manner in sport day events are held does not differ at all from my own school days. There is the march pass by the respective teams (by House colour), there would be a VIP to officiate the events, there would be the athlete's pledge, inter-school events and ending with teacher's events. The only difference is that during my time, sports day was held at my school's field now.. it is held at stadium.

Here are some preview of the photos that I have taken and more are available in my Flickr album.

People's Park - Shanghai Slideshow

2007-06-21T22:31:00.001+08:00