A Quiet Day ...

... is always welcome. So what's a quiet day like for me?

Breakfast - with J. We had dim sum at Uptown, chatted about the nastiness of the Malaysian Income Tax system. I am of course annoyed that they owed me more than RM10k. I kid you not. On appeal but no reply! Called but said nothing on file! I so need to go Penang to meet them!

Then it's a slow moment as I played online games before rushing for my drive back to Pe-Lek land ... hahaha! I am happy that I managed to skip lunch!

I spent it doing projections for the spa school @ Bali ... really hoping that it turns out well ... so if JH doesn't want to pay me or whatever, it's fine ... I can talk to Penny to get a deal going ... hey! They should all realize I need to be paid especially the amount of time I spent doing this projection!

Dinner - I met up with S (FOM) and as it was late around 8:00pm we went to KFC for the new Percik Meal. Not bad especially at that price but the really good thing? I managed to give up 1/4 of the skin. Hahaha! I know I should totally not eat it but hey, a little is a start, right?

Artwork - the only other thing I managed to do is finished a sketch of which I am actually happy about. It's one of my "gay urge" sketch. Basically guy in uniform. Ah well ... I need to get it out of my system and in view of that, basically, I only went to bed like 2:00am or so? Sigh!

So that's my Monday ... oh and as a reward for all that, my right butt cheek hurts so much! Maybe sitting down too long!

Travelogue Day 4 ... Bye Bye Johor

What a rip off! Did you know that the bloody metered taxi in Johor has a surcharge of RM2 for booking and if you say airport another surcharge of RM12? So in the end, we actually paid more for a normal cab to airport than when we took the airport cab when we touched down! This is just bloody ridiculous for a surcharge of 1/3 or 30% more or less of the metered value!

Other than that, nothing else happened. We flew back to KL, I drove R to 1 U for him to get his ticket then kept him company until he departed. After that, I went to my sis place to chill out, watched a movie before I drove home ... and naturally because of all that, I actually reached home much later than even R who took a bus to Penang. Hahaha!

I do feel ill tonight like a flu is oncoming ... know what I mean?

Travelogue Day 3 ... Universal Studios Singapore ... Yahooooo!

Finally after sooooo many years, I am here! Okay. Here's the quick rundown of events. We decided upon waking up to give the damn F-ing bus driver of Sunday a chance. We went to the queue and coincidentally - same bus number, same driver! This time, we got off the bus at the Singapore interchange, ran for it and came through definitely within 15 minutes and to our shock and horror, the few that were ahead of us were also left behind! You FUCKING PC99K bus!

Anyway, we went to 950 and waited and guess what? 6 170 buses came with no 950 until our entire line is almost empty i.e. everyone changed lines. Just as we are about to do so ... we saw coming our way the next Resorts World bus - a double decker ... and we made a dash for it and tried with our tickets and WOW they actually accepted. So it's onwards to Sentosa!

So glad we came to Universal! First bit of good news. Using Citibank credit card gets you a whopping discount for entrance and any mastercard is another discount for shopping within the Park! Yes yes yes!

It's so much better than anything in Malaysia. I kid you not. I am so glad we came here. First up was the shops and we had a good time browsing but decided not to buy as there would be tons of shopping to go and we were right. Then came the main road of old USA with dancers and songs. Real theme areas? We had Madagascar with a ride more for kids than adults

After that it was Shrek and it was again more for kids than adults although the 4D had a great spider sequence that caught most everyone off-guard!

Egypt zone is basically from the Mummy and we saw an actor who actually looks like Brendan Fraser posing for photos with people. He made some remarks as he walked around but some Indian guests looked lost like he was insulting them or something! The ride was a long queue of nearly an hour but it was quite thrilling especially since most are in darkness with flames bursting here and there

Jurassic Park ride? I got majorly drenched when the tub crashed down on my end of the boat

Finally we hit Transformers and WOW the 4D car ride is simply amazing as you cannot tell where our vehicle actually went thanks to the wonderful 3D screen ... note the car is moving through the zone and not just fixed like in a chair! The giant roller coaster is out of service though

The surprise of the day? Even the Sesame Street ride was awesome with its effects that make you feel like you are bobbing in space!

All in all, a wonderful day capped with friendly service from all the people working there made this a wonderful experience. Thanks Universal for a great day!

Travelogue Day 2 ... o Legoland JB ... you burnt me ...

Another morning ... another rainy day morning ...

We went out of our rooms only to be greeted by the most amazing housekeeping system ... there are trolleys permanently stationed outside our room doors but none at the pantry ... I have no idea why ... in addition, mountain of laundry are seen next to the lift with one staff sorting out on the floor while 2 staff are seated on the sofa chatting away! Awesome!

Next, you have to go get voucher every single morning from reception ... then walk up the steps for your meagre breakfast and I meant meagre ... 1 cereal, 1 milk, 1 cordial ... 1 plain congee with some pickles, 1 plain bread with butter n jam ... coffee or tea ... 4 hot dishes ... of which 1 is a fried rice and 1 fried koayteow ... 1 cheap sausage and 1 fried floury stuff! Ugh! And this is supposedly valued at a retail price of RM18?!?!??! Really?!?!?!?!

After that, from our experience yesterday, we decided not to trust the hotel and make our way to LEGOLAND via cab ... honestly the first impression was not too bad as there is some sort of mall at the entrance and you don't really see LEGOLAND ... weird I know ... and the oddest part is many shops are like not properly opened ... even though this attraction has been opened for months ... to top it off at a whopping RM140 per pax ... the shops here are of the lower end kind ... sigh!

LEGOLAND itself? Well, it's worth a visit to shoot photos of how they built Lego structures but that's it. Hey you know how in malls in the olden days there would be free exhibits? Well this feels like that except you pay, you walk under blistering heat and if you want the more "adult" rides of which there are less than a handful, you queue in long lines sweating away because they couldn't be bothered to think about guests comfort ... the only relief you get is whenever you go into one of their many shops! Sigh!

After that (we finished within 2 hours), we decided to hail a cab to Premium Mall and this reminded us of the wonderful cabbies outside KLCC - a bunch of Indians behaving like mafia charging you as they pleased without giving you the choice to choose normal or executive class cabs! Sigh!!!

The Premium Mall is pretty decent but again, hot! They couldn't be bothered to have loads of fans on the walkway between one shop to the other? Seriously? However, we learnt our lesson (Starbucks ran out of the foamy cream?!?!?!??!) and took a bus to the Immigration before going back to our hotel ... cheaper this manner

To end this night, we walked through the pasar malam behind our hotel to KSL mall ... not bad and had an awesome RM12.50 dinner at One Asia restaurant ... decent portions ... tasty and super friendly and efficient staff! What more could one ask for, eh?

Travelogue Day 1 ... Fly to Johor Bahru ...

The first challenge or rather new experience is to drive myself to LCCT and finding a parking there hoping that there is a spot as otherwise I will be in trouble. Hehehe! I have not done overnight parking. So first parking entrance? Full. Second entrance? Staff parking. Third entrance? Finally! We had a nice long walk ... more than 1 km? Maybe

As it is a domestic flight, it was a quick check in with none of the nightmare queue and we are flying! It was the first time for R so I got him a window seat. I also learnt from this trip that he frequently updates his FB

As we touched down JB, the airport hasn't changed a bit. It may label itself as international but it is still empty. We went to the airport car rental area and guess what? All counters are closed regardless of company. We called the numbers and they either do not wish to pick up or picked up and said cars not available

As it was drizzling, we decided to grab a cab to our hotel and checked in. It was a fairly long ride maybe 30 min. Once there, as expected, the rooms are not ready. We had a choice of doing LEGOLAND, Batam or going to Singapore. R opted for option 3 and we are set!

So many decisions at each stage but WTH we decided to be adventurous and thanks to some bad advise from the hotel, we crossed the road, grabbed a cab to the immigration and found out that the cab had to U-turn to our side of the street to get to immigration! Hah! Next the crossing of JB immigration. This was smooth. Then we came down and looked for transport to Singapore. Seeing a Resorts World area, we decided WHY NOT?!?!?!

WARNING: the bus drivers and attendants here are so RUDE. Cold, impersonal and unfriendly. You approached them even when there are no buses and no one even looked at you and tell you or give you proper directions but merely waved you away in a general direction. 3 old men did this?!?!?! So we have no way of knowing if we are in the right place or not. Finally we got on the bus and the conductor/ driver was the same

On Singapore side, the queue was not long and we were done fairly quick. Then came another nightmare. We rushed down and waited for our bus ... and waited ... and waited ... and others from our bus were there ... but after nearly 45 mins we all realized our  fucking bus had left! Without almost all of us!

In the end, we queued up for 950 (hotel's advice) ... and guess what? 950 to Woodlands had the least buses in the queue. So we jumped queue to 170 to Kranji and got there within 10 mins ...

Did we go Sentosa? Nah! After 44 mins on the train, we hopped out to Marina and it was dead brilliant. It was a beautiful day to waltz through the malls, have a great Brazilian BBQ and walked all through the square seeing all the different things. It was indeed lovely. We walked from MBS within to without passed the tall buildings across to the show auditoriums and the Eye before winding back to the museum and MBS.

We did a quick walk through the casino and it was lovely until Genting as there is hardly any fumes smell!

We met up with Linda who is coincidentally there for a showing of Phantom. And we ended the day by going up to see the sunset!

Before hoofing it back to our hotel for a late dinner and a well-deserved rest. So all in all? A good real first day for travel: not only did I join someone I hardly know but I did things I have not done and seen new thins!

Goodnight world!

AND NOW FOR THE SPECIALS ... the nightmare of a hotel ... imagine I booked first night direct with the hotel ... second and third nights with Agoda ... they had the cheek to call me and said I haven't paid when I sent everything to show them ... so when I got back, I showed them one more time the payment going through for first night ... they said I have to pay again and they will refund later if they received ... I said to show me proof it didn't go through ... reception said cannot and can only show me a handwritten scribbled note for me to pay ... after that, I found out they had locked me out of my room! What the FUCK?!?!?! Hallmark Regency Hotel ... remember this ... avoid them ...

Then someone called me when I went to my room ... I said that at least they know next 2 nights is fully paid ... so why not wait for tomorrow and if still not go through, I will pay them ... but they insisted I paid otherwise they are going to lock me out again!?!?!?! So I had no choice but to go down and pay them ... this is like bloody mafia attitude!!!!

Travelogue Day 0 ... Meeting Up

What's a Day 0 you may ask? It's the day before the official start of a trip and for me, day 0 is when I got my whole house cleaned up, tried to clean my car (unsuccessfully) and drove from beautiful Pelek land down to 1 Utama ... to wait for my new "buddy" who is coming down from Penang ... to join me for a quick, last minute journey to Johor, Singapore and depending on how exciting things are ... Batam!

While waiting for R, I managed to catch up with an old high school mate named ... WSM! Truth be told, this guy is someone I had a small, tiny, attraction/ crush to. Hey! High school had some major cuties like BW, WPK, okay?!?!?! Anyway, I know we never spoke or at the most acknowledged but one thing I learnt as I grew older, it seemed like I remembered more from school days than my mates. And he is one of them who at first didn't remember me (via FB) ... but subsequently through a few messages "remembered". Hehehe!

Anyway good to see that he is doing well and happily settled down with wife and child! Ah ... how I longed for a child of my own, eh?

As for the rest of day 0, it went generally well. First thing I learnt is that young people will be young people and at 22, I am like 18 years older than him! Hah! Imagine if I had sex when I was in Form 5, he could be my son!?!?!?!

Anyway, all he was keen is his obsessions with online gaming (motor racing) ... and Tamiya-ing! Well, so I learnt something new, eh?

He spent so much money and nearly 2 hours gaming away after movie and late lunch. By the time we drove back here, it was around 7:00pm or later. Good thing he didn't freak out about my house and I did drive him around a bit to see the neighbourhood even though it was dark

We finally went to bed around midnight or so ... and he promptly went snoring away ... hehehe!

Goodnight diary! Goodnight R!

Pre-opening done ... finally ...

Yes, people, I decided to finally sit down and just get this over and done with. This refers to the pre-opening program for my own hotel management company. I am using Paku as a template and in future, every time I have a new client, I just use this

Now that it is cleared, I feel so much more relaxed. Next up is a few contracts to have in place and summarize the budget. After that, chasing the slowpoke/ procrastinator for the business plan. I kept on chasing him and he kept on promising but not delivering. Ugh!

I am going to have to write to someone as back up I think. I don't want to over-rely on him

Other than the above, nothing else happened today. All I did was? Clean house. Swept and mopped

So I am not going to waste any more cyberspace here and take up your time if you are reading this, eh?

O yes, tonight is the eve of HARI RAYA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My House @ BL ... and a blow up with ... you-know-who

Let's start with the nicer news, shall we?

Nope BL does not mean Bacon n Lettuce ... it's the name of the local village where I am now residing. Anyway, first up was my parents and sister (naturally) and finally after many changes in schedules, I hosted JL who was my first superior in KL when I worked here in 1994. Yup that's like 2 decades ago. Isn't it nice to still be friends after all this time? Even though we probably find each other annoying some of the times? Hehehe! Truthfully, he was probably one of the nicest, most helpful man I have ever met in my entire working career if not entire life up to now. How many people would offer help and guidance to complete strangers who just became younger colleagues knowing full well that these colleagues will surpass him in a few years time?!?!! Very few, this I tell you, especially in our part of society these days where everyone thinks about their own skins first!

Anyway, that's the highlight from life in the sticks for yesterday! Hah! We met in Sg Pelek, drove to where I am staying to show him the bungalows and semi-d. Then we went further to Seri Bayu where the terrace or linked houses are that he is looking for. After that, it was a beach front drive to where all the ikan bakar shops were before finally heading up to Tg Sepat

Lunch was @ Lovers' Bridge restaurant where I initially had with Eye Sac and Case Man and again the food was not that great. And again I have to wonder why KL people pour into this place on weekends just to get a sample of the food

Then to my surprise at the small souvenir shop, he bought a bag of snacks! This is just the like ladies (expats) I brought over several months ago. Seems like people just have to buy so that location is perfect, eh?

After that, we drove around town showing him the seafood bah kut teh ... before we finally ended up at the pow and hainanese kopi area which again to my surprise he bought! He bought pow, kopi n even fruit juice! Hah!

Now to the annoying part ... I literally shouted into the phone ... I checked on my bank account and as usual found the money gone taken by Core. I messaged him asking why and instead of replying properly merely said that as I have more and not yet bankrupt (what the fuck!), he decided to take more. Also if I don't like, we cancel our China trip. Again he is threatening me, again he is spending without control, again he will ask for more regardless of my current situation and then like the fucker he is, he will then say to buy house or car or whatever. How does that work?!?!?!

Imagine if no inflation, based on what I have, I can live comfortably as a single person without ever working for next 20 years but with him, it's like 5 max?!?!?! And considering the fact that he will ever truly care for me, now you know why weeks ago, I made up my mind this is a relationship going to end. It's a matter of time only. I have given up hope on him. ARGH!

Naturally late at night, he texted he is sorry via BBM and Watsapp ... for once learning to ask for forgiveness ... instead of blaming me!

Lazy Sunday ... or a Time to take Stock

Today is a quiet day as my sis has some foreigner visitors from work and she left in the morning. I didn't see her until the evening. That gave me the day to myself which was just fine. I toddled around the house not doing much of anything wasting time. Hahaha! This break actually (not really a break) from Indonesia is what I need. In fact, next few days I want to get everything done and cleared out of the way so I can have at least 1 FULL WEEK off

Okay. What else?

Well I always loved lists and that hasn't change. So at this point in a month, I will officially touch 41 and before I do that, let's list out the major milestones to-date, eh? Sort of a take a stock look at what has been done and what is next

1972 - I was born
1977 - I entered kindergarten (Peng Wah)
1979 - I started primary school (St Xavier's Pulau Tikus)
1984 - bye bye primary school
1985 - I started secondary school (St Xavier's Institution @ Georgetown)
1987 - I sat for the form 3 exams
1989 - I sat for the form 5 exams and also bye bye primary school
1990 - I joined Disted's South Australian Matriculation program
1991 - I joined Disted Deakin's Bachelor degree program
1993 - final year, I went to Australia and hello Warrnambool; I backpacked Australia Eastern Corridor
1994 - I started work in Arthur Andersen Penang Tax  Div and seconded to KL
1995 - I was seconded to Alor Setar then switched to Audit Div
1996 - I was seconded to Singapore office and met Wee Wee; I resigned after I returned; I joined SSB
1999 - I joined Dell for all of less than half a year and saw cutie Pat F again from high school!
2000 - I joined Superstar Leo and was stalled at sea due to engine issues, then transferred to Taurus and saw typhoons several stories high
2001 - I was transferred to Virgo; I backpacked Vietnam; I resigned and joined PPIKL
2003 - I was asked to leave PPIKL; I joined R Maldives under HPL Group
2004 - I assisted C Maldives; tsunami
2005 - I went to Raffles Phnom Penh; I resigned and joined FS Maldives under HPL Group

To be continued ...

My Sis 42nd ... and serious HOTTIE @ KLCC

This morning, it was a surprisingly good drive down to Damansara even though I left around 8:00am (after) and reached in about an hour by obeying speed limit. Hah! I guess whoever is rushing for the weekend to go shopping or home for the holidays have either left the night before or haven't properly woken up for the day's activities yet ... which spelt good for us

The same thing happened when we were going to KL. My sis and I decided to go there for the awesome MALAYSIA SALE. And this year is awesome! Instead of the usual 10% or if you buy more than so-and-so amount, you get how much discount, this year most of the shops have huge areas for 50% and 60%. I kid you not. We spent from like 11:00am to 4:00pm with only 1 short break for lunch at Chilli's and that's it. Good window shopping for me

Many things I would so love to buy but you know me, when it comes time to buy for myself, I always felt guilty if I over-indulge in luxury items. I ended up getting some books and a pair of Fred Perry shoes and that's it

Still it was lovely and I managed to waltz around checking out the cute security guards but ... get ready for this ... today we have someone even hotter ... someone close to a 10! I was walking around when this chap dressed in black was carrying a takeaway packet and busy on the phone. So I literally slowed down to check my phone and then ended up behind him. I kept following him and stopping when he did and ... found out he worked at Giorgio Armani! DAMN! Too expensive for me to casually go in and pretend to buy something especially when I am so dressed down!

ARGH!

Okay. His looks? Tall/ average height and slim. Nice hair (coloured I think as it was black/ light) and sharp features. Cannot tell if Chinese or Malay or mix. And he looked so hot in the clothes. The waist, the butt ... hahahahaha! I shall not elaborate!

O ya so we celebrated my sister's birthday 3 times ... first was lunch at Chilli's but she didn't want me to tell them so there was no singing and free brownies .... then dinner was at Sushi Tei and still she didn't want me to tell them ... finally I was at Adz for Starbucks and I bought 2 slices of cake home for us to share ... and she ate them! Hehehe!