Those were the days...

Recently joined Facebook, and found some old friends online. Managed to hook up with some of my old college mates, and one of them posted a picture from my college days. It was taken during the 1991 summer ball in Dover College. Wow! So long ago, and golly! I was so skinny back then! Certainly bring back a lot of memories... One or two of my friends have asked me to go back for a visit, but since returning so many years ago, haven't been back to the UK at all. I know some of my college mates have been back to the school, and yes, have been tempted more than once to revisit and see the changes that have occured, but alas, have not found the right time. One day... one day...


It was then predominantly a boarding school, but I think it has changed with the majority now being day students. I was in Leamington house for four years, and yes, rivalry in terms of athleticism and sports activities were pretty intense amongst the various houses. For those who have not stayed in a boarding school in UK, think Harry Porter with the various houses. :P

I guess overall, it was certainly an experience, and a time for personal growth. I relish the exposure given in terms of music (which I was active in, and will post about this one day), sports (tried a bit of rugby, cricket, hockey, tennis, but never excelled in any, except perhaps for badminton), and the opportunity to socialise with people from various countries. Got to know some English mates, Scots, Welsh, Germans, Spaniards, Bermudian, Japanese, Greeks, Hongkies, Americans, Singaporeans, Malaysians, Guyanans :P, etc. Of course, some were friendlier than others... And it was interesting to pick up a few foreign words here and there! More often than not, such words were not suitable for polite conversations... LOL!!! And I can actually remember some of the words...!!! Hahaha....

And once every four years or so, there will be a photo session with the entire school, and by individual houses. I actually have this group photo framed up, somewhere in my room back in Sarawak. Looking at these pictures make me want to dig back those old photos and imagine myself back in the yesteryears... Can you tell which is me? :P

FedEx and Pistol Pete

Got an invite for an exclusive mingling session with Roger Federer and Pete Sampras, two tennis legends here in Malaysia for the "Clash of the Titans" series. How not to go? Actually, I declined the invitation earlier on when asked last weekend, on the expectation that the place (Shooks! at Starhill) will be jam-packed like sardines.

But, changed my mind last minute, and rechecked whether I could still go. Initially, was told that the available spaces have been taken up, but later got a call confirming a place for me. Yippeee! Cocktail was scheduled for 6pm, and I only managed to get there about 6:35pm, and the cordoned off place was filled with so many people! How on earth will FedEx and Pistol Pete be able to mingle simple boggles the mind. And true enough, their scheduled arrival at 6:45pm was delayed due to a prior press conference, only getting there about 7:15pm, and they couldn't mingle. Sigh...

What transpired? A lot of digital cameras and handphone cameras flashing away. Both were asked a couple of questions which they kindly answered, but when it came to phototaking time, it was like a mad rush. No one-on-one photo session, more like group shots, and no autographs. BUMMER! And time was also limited for phototaking. Initially, I wanted to go up and have my photo taken with them, but there were just too many people still in queue before the announcement of "Time's Up!", with them being ushered away for the next appointment to have dinner with the Deputy Prime Minister. Humpph...

Now, I enjoy tennis (more like watching on telly), and have a few favourite players. Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, and now, Roger Federer! He is simply the best!!! Currently at No. 1 in the world, and hungry for more grandslam titles!

My consolation? Some good shots of the famous duo, and I stood at the exact same spot where Roger Federer stood barely a few moments before! :P

Chinese for the Banana...

HAHAHAaaa...!

After a tiring week...

After a week of several late nights, and busy running arounds, it's the weekend!!! YAY!!!!!!



YIPPEEEE YAYYY!!! JENG! JENG! JENG!!! :P

A tale of one scoop too many

It was another binging session, this time at Etoile (pronounced Ee-too-ah), for all you can eat Haagen-Dazs ice-cream. The last time I had a session like this, it was a while back, and had it at the Haagen-Dazs outlet proper, for 11 (yes, ELEVEN!) scoops of deliciously varied flavours of creamy ice-cream and much needed few glasses of plain water. After that session, I swore off ice-cream for at least two weeks. Incidentally, someone else out-ate me, with twelve scoops, and that someone happened to be a girl! Oh dearie me...



This time, Etoile carried only 8 flavours, but that didn't stop the bunch of us from having a go at the all you can eat session. Not only that, at least Etoile served other cakes and some meat skewers (almost like kebabs), with coffee and tea inclusive. For the all you can eat price, RM35++ per person, we reckoned that we would need to consume 6 scoops each to breakeven.

How many scoops did I whallop? I had 8 scoops, but wasn't adventurous to try all 8 different flavours (Etoile had a limited range, but they provided other food). I stuck to a few tried and tested ones:
a. 1 scoop of Tiramisu
b. 1 scoop of Vanilla
c. 1 scoop of Cookies and Cream
d. 1 scoop of Chocolate
e. 2 scoops of Rum and Raisin
f. 2 scoops of Macadamia Nut

However, this time, instead of having the 8 ice-cream scoops as is, had them in a variety of styles. Freshly made waffles went well with a mixture of "yummilicious" scoop of Rum and Raisin as well as a scoop of silky Macadamia Nut ice-cream, and even the vanilla was taken ala Affogato, that is, pure black coffee, with a large dollop of rich creamy vanilla ice-cream! For the others, I went easy on the toppings! :P

Although I had ONLY 8 scoops, (2 scoops less than the previously binging session), I felt terribly full, especially having taken in 3 of those heavenly tasting little meringues and another 3 of those crunchy walnut tartlets on top of a skewer of the chicken kebab. Oh, they even have a chocolate fountain! Even writing this, I feel full already just thinking about all the food earlier on.

I may think that 8 is a lot, but two of the guys managed to consume 10 (TEN!!) scoops each after trying out the other food as well. Another two small sized skinny girls also ate 8 scoops, while others were hitting limits of 6, 4 and even 3 scoops only. All in all, the ten of us had 66 scoops of sinfully rich creamy ice-cream on top of the other food provided, so we did a tad better than just breaking even! :P

Incidentally, I had to unbuckle my belt whilst driving home. Pants are getting pretty tight! Groan... time to hit the gym...

A taste of food somewhere...

Went "somewhere" to have a bite, and drove "someplace" to try new food last weekend. Decided to go for Chinese food, and like usual, would order the sweet and sour pork as a meter-ology (huh?) to gauge the competency of the various culinary experts in the kitchen in preparing this somehow simple dish. Now mind you, many have said that this dish is easy to prepare, which is true enough, but hard to prepare well I reckon, at least to my not-so-high standards. :P The sweet and sour pork in this outlet, oh dearie me, didn't have the crispness and the tomato sauce kick I get when I find a good one! (incidentally, someone once told me that ketchup was not made from tomato, but from pineapples. Have not verified this though). Oh, I was also trying out my new Canon Ixus 960 IS! What do you think? :)


Would hesistate to identify the place where I ate, but surfice to say that the food was rather bland. Even the butter crabs' sauce was kind of diluted. What is more telling, is that the aromatic scent of the various dishes didn't get soaked into the meat/seafood. More like cooked separately, and the sauce just gets poured over. Sigh...

I guess the first indication of a potential disappointment was the drink I ordered. Supposed to be a longan drink, but I didn't see any longans in the drink! Hey! That's almost like ordering a roti pisang without the pisang!

I think out of the whole meal, the best was the appetizer. How can you go wrong with peanuts coated with heaps loads of sugar and fried?

Incidentally, healthy or not, I have a sweet tooth!

End of bitching session...

A festival of light

Haven't been blogging for a while, been pretty busy lately, so last Thursday's national holiday break for the Deepavali celebration was a welcomed moment. However, a shortened working week meant more late nights to complete reports and such, otherwise, would have had to bring work back.

Saw this "kolam" at the mall next to my office. Imagine the attention to detail, and the painstaking effort to ensure the various coloured rice grains were arranged to depict a particular scene or picture. This was actually one of the nicer ones I have seen so far.

With the rest time available, instead of staying at home and recuperate from the various running around I have been doing lately, I met up with some friends and hit the lanes for a game or two (or three!) of tenpin bowling. Didn't bowl too well though, below my average, and lost a couple cups of coffee as a side bet. Incidentally, the best hot chocolate (rather than going for coffee) I have tried so far is at Starbucks! Yumm!

Also managed to catch "Stardust", a movie along the Fantasy Genre. Quite good actually, light and humurous to boot. Somehow, got into a discussion with a friend about "stars", especially when Yvaine towards the end, said that stars shine:

Alex: What do stars do?
Friend: They glitter or twinkle.
Alex: No'lah, they shine!
Friend: They don't shine, they reflect the sun!

So? What do you reckon? Stars shine brightly or they twinkle in the night? Hmmm...

Student vs Working Life

Got this through the email, and I think it has been circulating for a while already. However, it still holds true. Working life is so much different from being a student. What is worse? Try working and studying at the same time, which many still have to do...!

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Bill Gates once gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Dinosaur no more

My PC at home has been likened to a dinosaur. Was still running on a Pentium II, with very limited harddisk space. However, all that has finally changed, and thanks to some friends who persistently nudged me to get some technological upgrades. :P

And would you believe it? In this day and age, some still use dial-up connections? Cheaper muh, especially for people who do not use the internet much, except to check emails and do a few basic things. Again, yeah, FINALLY got myself converted to using broadband!!! and yes, it's faster! Wireless to boot! Yippeee, less wires running around .... :P

So, what shall I do with my current dinosaur? Not quite extinct yet...