Spiga
A picture says everything. Expected to open next month in Bandar Baru. The shop will be occupying the MCA building and an adjacent shoplot.
This is a map for anyone who doesn’t know where will it be (follow: red circle).
It’s a pity I most likely won’t be there when it opens. 'Because I will be in Melaka as soon as tomorrow for 3 months of hospital attachment.
Wish me luck and hardwork =)
她在我耳边细语道：
“又是秋夕之节，借你黄粱枕一个；
深秋之时，勿忘奉还。”
忆 梦里一切 在风中漫步的湖边
而我望着阵阵秋雨 想起你在阵阵秋叶里 啊娜的背影
而我在枫树下止步 见你对我一回眸 深深触动着我心腑
而我们席坐湖中轻舟一艘 你妩媚的眼神 仿佛向我倾诉心中许多郁闷
如今 深秋已至
这场黄粱美梦 让我深陷其中多时
美梦将尽 我却早已无法自拔
告诉我
孤掌尚且难鸣
难道梦里一切 仅是我一厢情愿？
也许美梦将尽 才是我们最好的结局
也许天不作美 才是最想你的季节
MV导演：Kyle 词：王力宏/Kyle 曲：王力宏
请听原曲forever love以便享受本词的效果
（MV开始，看见以KLCC为背景的早晨吉隆坡塞车）
驾车 不是因为我有钱而已
我每天都要驾车 每个公里伤透我薪金
因为你让我看见forever 公车放飞机
上班这些日子 要好好珍惜
驾车 有些痛苦有些不公平
如果真的驾车 不是理所当然的决定
看到其他汽车在我车边 用力的鸣笛
温柔的咒骂 前面的司机
所以我要 每一天早起来开车 哦 多不自然
forever jam forever jam
我不想用我这一辈子去塞车
从今以后 你会是所有 迟到的理由
上班 是场最久最远的旅行
沿途车祸频密 偶尔阻碍我们的前进
看到其他司机赶抄车牌 迟点买4D
巧妙的勾起 我的火脾气
不可思议 证明我骂人的理由 哦 多么自然
forever jam forever jam
我不想用我这一辈子去塞车
从今以后 你会是所有 迟到的理由
你超多的toll gate 我鸣笛的声音 仿佛就是最好的抗议
就让我再说一次 I HATE YOU 哦！ 直到永远！
哦 forever jam forever jam
我不想用我这一辈子去塞车
从今以后 你会是所有 迟到的理由
forever jam forever jam
forever jam...（MV在不尽的车龙中 fade out 结束）
My friends are currently taking part in a New Zealand Natural fanpic contest.
I sincerely appeal to all my blog readers… please vote for them if you have a facebook account! Thanks!
You can vote by following these steps:
1. Become a fan of New Zealand Natural.
2. Click this pic and choose ‘like’!
This is the pic!
I’m sorry to tell you that I can’t offer anything in return…your efforts are voluntary and will be much appreciated! I myself too, although not taking part in the competition, tried to help them and resulted in being called a spammer by friends T_T It hurt me, but it should not affect our will to fight to the end! My only purpose in helping is just so that my friends can overtake another winning pic and win! (Now don’t ya try to vote the other pic =P) My friends are currently 40 votes short for a tie.
If you are reading this, please help! I offer you much thanks on behalf of my friends!
P/S: The voting ends this Saturday, please be quick if you want to join the Force!
In 87 minutes’ time, I will be collecting my final results.
Have been feeling awful these few days. All friends in the group have finished their tests except me. Stress arises when they are already preparing presentations, analysis, and what. When I see them, I feel STRESS.
I hope the stressful feeling will be alleviated tonight. Missing Aidilfitri has less effect on me (except missing a week’s holiday; nobody invited me to any meals). But I cannot afford to miss Deepavali because along with that I miss at least three great meals T_T In deep sadness now. Anyway, happy belated Deepavali to everyone.
Today is also the second day of the ninth Chinese lunar month, where Taoists will observe nine days of vegetarianism as part of the nine-day Nine Heavenly Emperors festival. Vegetarianism observed during these nine days are supposed to be very strict, i.e. only plain and simple vegetables, but the twisted business minds of the Chinese sure have changed a lot of things. Nowadays people just take vegetarian ‘char siew’, chicken, pork, anything which was in meat form originally. Some temples even invite artists to perform in sexy dresses. It is no wonder why Zahid Hamidi said such dances are part of the Chinese culture. Because these dances appear in even the holiest religious festivals of all! Relevant bodies may want to look into such insults on the festivals. Not Zahid Hamidi’s insult; I mean, that’s ignorance. They might want to look into why temple committees allow such performances in temples.
After all these tests, I will be looking forward to go back very soon. I’m so sick of the IMU building now, the mere sight of it induces emesis.
Sigh.
Today my research work had a good start.
Apparently the cells are now growing very well. I have subcultured the cells and hopefully they will be enough on Wednesday for the ultimate test.
Anyway, tomorrow I’m going to do my third positive control test. The first one failed because of big variation, and second one failed because of…bad reagent? Don’t know.
This week must proceed without any errors, mistakes, bad lucks, and bad incidences. I hope so. I sincerely hope so.
I don’t want to be the last person to remain in the lab.
Happy anniversary day to what is left of the Republic of China now.
I could not remember when did they begin to associate IT so tightly with me.
It probably began when I offered to help setup projectors and school's awful PCs.
When I offered the first help, I wasn't even aware of what many of the buttons on the projector remote control were supposed to do. The help offered was on a goodwill, and desire to hasten lectures so that they wont go beyond their time limits, which may in turn deprive me of my toilet breaks. Of course, skills come with experience. Projector setup did not become a problem soon enough.
School PCs are another story. They were awful and they still are awful. It took me an hour to print just 4 pages last week, having to go through 5 PCs, 4 printers and 3ELLs.
Somehow, I was said to be extremely good in IT and people came after me with many questions and problems. I didn't mind. Helping is good. And I get to learn a few things on the side. Soon enough, I even started looking for viruses in people's computers because the real expert has become sort of unavailable, both time and person.
Whatever it is, I wasn't an IT expert. I am still not an IT expert.
I profess an interest in gadgets. I admit my fancies for Apple products. I may have helped many people in their computer-related problems.
But I am not an IT expert.
When I was supposed to take pictures as a 'silent potato' (as they call in Malay), its OK. I am silent most of the time, especially in front of people that I am not well acquainted, people that I dislike so much, people that I secretly admire :-$, and during meetings which I don't have additional opinions to make. It is also true that most of those in the silent potatoes group don't make noise in the public (as evident in the last meeting). Taking photos in lab coats is less fine, but still acceptable for me. Asking me to pose like an IT expert is too much.
I feel like I'm becoming a geek in no time. Now have I realised that I am the computer geek in most people's eyes.
The association of IT and I had also nearly changed my research project for this semester.
Apparently, someone (which I have yet to identify) mentioned me as an IT expert in a certain e-PBL, causing the e-PBL facilitator, who happens to be my current research supervisor, to ask me if I had wanted to do 3D QSAR work instead of plant extraction. The supervisor for the 3D QSAR project had also came to meet me to see because he thought I had a genuine interest in it.
Sorry, I said. I am more interested in trying plant extraction.
You can still ask me about computer-related problems. I will try my best to help.
But please do not call me an IT expert. I don't know C, Java, and so many things. I can't even do a proper flash movie.
Don't embarrass me in front of the real experts. Please.
It was confirmed in the e-mail today: I got posted to Hospital Melaka.
I have never expected myself to be posted to Melaka for my junior clerkship. All the while Melaka was reserved for students of Melaka & southern origins.
I went crazy for some time and realised that it is not going to have any effects. It is destined. Just accept it.
I hope my clerkship in Melaka will be a fruitful and memorable one.
I hope the new theme looks good. Credit to its creator and porter.
As an update to my research project, it seems after analysing the data with all possible methods, I have got positive results for all extracts.
Now, many people would have been excited. I am not. Afterall, I'm the only one in the group getting all positive result, and with the positive result being unconvincing, I doubt if anything useful would surface in the cell death differentiation ELISA test later. So I have three choices now: MTT, repeat XTT, or accept it.
On the other hand, my positive control test result had gone all haywire. It could be caused by the unhealthy cells, or improperly dissolved drug causing variations in concentrations, or my poor skills. This is really, really unfortunate compared to my all-positive XTT result.
I hope my meeting with supervisor later can provide a good future direction.
My Asus laptop is now taking a break from the hectic lifestyle.
It has succumbed to the infamous Asus hinge crack. I'd strongly suggest any Asus laptop users who are not aware of it to Google, read up, and be pray that it happens within the 24 months warranty period.
Fortunately mine is still under warranty. So no extra cost incurred for now, except for possible loss of productivity for the next two weeks.
It was a pity I did not take a picture (Even if I did, it wouldn't have reached this computer anyway, not without bluetooth), but all Asus users should be aware of the hinge crack.
I remembered once a salesperson told me why Apple laptops are the choice. He said, "Acer quality simply sucks. Dell covered its quality issues with good service, but build quality still sucks. Vaio is overpriced and simply not worth the extra bucks. Asus, well, good quality overall, except for the hinges that will break sooner or later."
Of course, that was a year ago. Things might have changed. Macbook Air has hinge problems too anyway. Potential Apple buyer can forget about Macbook Air. Just consider the unibody Macbook Pros.
I guess I'll have to stick nearer to this desktop and iPod Touch for now. Apple probably marketed it correctly this time, at least for me:
Finally I am back from Teluk Intan after spending 3 days back there.
Unfortunately I was not able to meet up with friends. Attentions were much needed at home and at the company. I wasn't even able to talk to my friend who had just came back from Taiwan. In fact, I didn't even let him know I was back.
TI's traffic was almost a mess. It is very apparent that so many people from Hilir Perak are now calling somewhere home, coming back only during long holidays to visit parents and hometowns/home villages. In fact, the story applies to many Perakians who are now living in Selangor, KL, Penang and Johor as well. This is the brutal reality of the current Perak's economy situation: no jobs, so everyone has to look elsewhere. One lecturer had made an interesting remark when he enquired on my hometown. "There are a lot of Teluk Intan people in KL huh? I have seen many." I was a little shocked then; the idea of 'many Teluk Intan people' did not occur to me since it's so small a place.
I have also taken a newly constructed Bidor bypass which leads to the federal highway 1, somewhere between Bidor and Sungkai (It seems that a certain tempat pelupusan sampah Majlis Daerah Tapah is also nearby, if not beside that road). Part of the road is still naked without bitumen, but the sights were quite pleasant, with occasional lakes (I assume they were tin-mining lakes) and only little oil palm trees. That road is probably built on a ex-tin mine wasteland. Most importantly, it bypasses Bidor! I won't totally disagree if you say I dislike Bidor. It so happened that I disliked Pun Chun Restaurant and the pain to bear the sight of it everytime I pass through Bidor. Otherwise, Bidor has a really nice main street, with historical Chinese shops lining both sides of it. It would have looked great as an example of the history of Chinese settlements in Malaya. Of course, without Pun Chun.
A few months back Google launched push contacts and calendars for iPhone. What’s lacking was mail push. It was finally activated last week.
Now, for those who don’t understand push, it means actively notify you of updates. On an iPhone there are two ways to obtain information: fetch and push. Fetch means you actively retrieve info from the server (e.g. fetch mail from mail server), while push means the server actively notifies you of your incoming info and sends you the info. Using Push means you don’t have to work; everything comes to you. As you can see above, I have activated push for mail, contacts, and calendars.
In this case, Google is utilising Microsoft Exchange technology to provide push services for iPhone. If you’re using iPhone and GMail, you can follow the instructions here to get push notifications for your emails.
Apple introduced Push notifications officially this year as a way to compensate for the iPhone OS’s inability to truly multitask. Multitasking doesn’t really matter for me though, and anyway Push is a nice simple feature which doesn’t add much to iPhone/iPod Touch’s CPU and RAM workload.
Finally I have finished the positive control assay for my project. This means things can now stop for a while before I proceed, that is, if there's anything to proceed to.
Today's result is going to have a large SD. It's unfortunate.
I found that I have grown lazier in time. I used to care about many things. Nowadays, I probably gave less opinion when I was requested to give one. I guess I'm not that bothered with people's problems now, or was I so all the while? I don't know.
I guess I should focus on analysing the results for now.
I'd like to begin the post by wishing Happy Eid-ul-Fitr to all Muslims. Eid-ul-Fitr, or Aidilfitri may not have a very significant celebration in other countries, but in Malaysia and Indonesia, it is one of the most important event throughout the year.
In a country like Malaysia, everybody, Muslims or non-Muslims can all enjoy the festive mood, albeit in a different way. The most important thing is, everyone gets holidays to return to meet their families and friends. For those who cannot go back, like me, we more or less still get to feel the festive mood, but slightly lonelier.
Yesterday after the announcement by the Keeper of the Royal Seal on the date of Aidilfitri, people began playing fireworks everywhere (in KL). It is heartening to see fireworks; they bring out festive mood from almost everyone. It is good to feel that although it is a Muslim celebration, we all enjoyed it, or felt happy about it at the end of the day.
I'm currently stranded in KL because of my research tests. This is the second time I have spent Aidilfitri in KL. I could remember the first time I did so was in 2006. Back then I used to take a bus home but somehow I could only go back a day after Aidilfitri because all tickets were sold out. I spent the whole day sleeping, watching TV (live from Seri Perdana I think, I forgot), doing some work, accompanied by prayers from nearby mosques.
Today, I did almost everything minus the TV (there's no TV here), but of course, yesterday night was much better because there weren't fireworks back in 2006.
Recently, many things happened to my project. It may not be as serious as some other people's, but it is still something. I was especially upset at how my cells could have been "accidentally taken away". Although I have successfully recovered one of the two lost flasks, cell count in the flask was low already. I definitely hope it won't affect my test outcome tomorrow.
There are also certain things which have tested my patience. I guess I have chosen to just take a laugh in the end as usual. After all these years, these events are not much of a surprise to me anymore. I also believe that others will begin to have a deeper understanding of these events, sooner or later.
Salam Aidilfitri again. Maaf zahir dan batin.
The new iPod Touch 3G was announced last Wednesday. Contrary to all previous rumours, the new iPod Touch does not have a camera. However, the graphics is updated, processor speed is now believed to be ~800MHz and RAM should be 256MB by now, therefore beating iPhone again by offering the best gaming experience.
After seeing the announcement, which many say as the dullest event in many years, I’m glad that I do not have the pressure to dump my love for now. ^^
It’s Sunday night again. Tomorrow will be the beginning of a series of hard work until Aidilfitri.
I vividly remember spending my last Sunday night resting after moving boxes and files out of an office. I spent an entire day today sitting, sleeping, eating, and answering calls of nature.
I have not been in the pink of my health for the past two weeks. I had ILI (Influenza-like Illness) last week and and today I felt like I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Headache and drowsiness ensued.
Malaysia was not in peace either. A small group of Muslims chose the holy month of Ramadhan to demonstrate against the construction of a Hindu temple by stepping on a cow’s head. It is most unfortunate.
It also happened that the month of hungry ghost falls on this month, and probably as a result, many people’s projects were stalled. Even mine was affected (multiple times). Still, it could be pure coincidence.
Of course, things again changed a lot from last Sunday. Thanks to visually alert friends who showed concern for me. Also thanks for not blaming me on the mixing of leaves and roots extract. T_T I cry secretly in my heart everytime I was reminded of it.
Finally, it seems that my research work will be stalled for at least 1 day after all. My cells are now totally infected with bacteria of unknown strain (A type of diplococcus, which means Strep is very possible). The origin is most likely to be the culture medium, since my friend’s cells in the same medium were infected as well. This, together with my sore throat + cold symptoms (certainly hope not Strep infection) means I can take a day off today. Maybe tomorrow as well.
When things are turning out negatively for me, I usually just accept it, sometimes with a cruel smile. When people had the same dilemma, I sometimes too give a cruel smile and even a laugh. Some people said that was quite cold-blooded and cruel. I believe when something is beyond help, why not just laugh at how things have turned out to be and go on from there while we are still able to. If life is cruel to me, there is no need for me to be cruel to myself. The only exception for me is probably when I have been cruel to myself. Then that would not be funny, and would need serious thoughts over it.
Love thyself when life loveth not thee.
每天都写“无题”，有点无聊，有点废，所以该题为‘杂记’，更贴切，更符合。
今天忽然有种不满足的感觉。做什么都一样，就是不满足，不开心，想着难道世上没有比较好的了吗？例如说，个人其实很喜欢Linux式操作平台，可是Ubuntu在我电脑播放影片时却有许多问题，让我大失所望。老大不愿地开启缓慢的Windows Vista，虽然能用，可是毕竟还不是心里真正要的。再举一个例子。个人也是很喜欢iPhone的操作平台，可是iPhone当年竟然只有2.0MP的相机，缺这缺那，实在是烂了一点，于是买了iPod Touch。现在好了，iPhone大跃进，终于能买了，可是经济也跟着萧条了，口袋也紧了（想说腰带也紧了，可是那样就有两个意思了，等一下就有人可以说，“啊！你也认肥了哦？”），就继续看回iPod Touch好了。虽然跟iPhone差不多，可是毕竟还不是心里真正要的。
有些事物，也许曾经想要过，可是在认真考虑了以后决定放弃了，忽然间因缘巧合，彼此开始交流，直到某刻才发觉到自己已经日久生情，放不下了。虽然不是当年真正要的，可是却因为时间、机遇的改变而不一样了。此时，我们应该要继续与旧爱在一起，还是展开一段新的感情呢？举个例子。当年抛弃iPhone后，曾经拿iPod Touch与PSP比一比，到最后还是选了iPod Touch。现在机缘巧合，从弟弟那里拿到了PSP，相处几天后忽然觉得其实还不错。当然，有人会说“一切都太迟了。”也有人会说，“干脆都买了！”可是如我友人话哉，“有超过一架宠物机就会减少你应用它们的时间。”而且现实中没有多少个人有那么多时间养两架宠物机，我亦是如此。
又有时候，终于得到了某些长久以来要求的事物。也许一开始对事物的操作条件并不了解，开始相处后才了解到要求麻烦，条件多多。那时候应该怎么办呢？尤其是如果还有其他选择的话呢？来个例子。你对父亲大人说，“我要一辆车。”父亲大人说，“好，给你。”即便给了你一辆第一代Proton Saga。也许一开始并不介意车的款式，又或者第一代笨蛋傻瓜是你蒙昧以求的款式，总之是一辆第一代Proton Saga。你便开始驾了，起初有点不惯（旧车款，有点麻烦），不过你很需要，管不了那么多。不久后，你父亲说，“现在你每次驾车都要Log in + Log out，并摘录去了哪里，走了多少公里，打了多少油，载了多少人，换了多少次机油，总之在车上的每分钟都要写进Logbook里。还有，汽油、维修费自费。还有，每星期要载父母出去一次。还有，必须要在午夜12时前回来。还有，……”等等要求。此时此刻的你，应该怎么办呢？看朋友驾着更好的车而没有你那般繁文缛节，会想怎样呢？放弃驾车？与父亲商讨妥协？或者等有些钱后自己买车好了？
虽说是杂文，却写了这么一大篇。难怪有人说我长气。我其实不是很长气罢了，只是想再三确定，又或着讲到明白为止。希望有人看得明白以上三段。呵呵。
今天早上在校门外买椰浆饭时就这么巧地遇上了旧房东。两年半没见了，她竟然还认得出我。
互相问候一般后，才知道原来我的旧屋友早已搬走，搬走时连房东新买的床也弄坏了。房东只用三个字来总结，“不像样！”想了一下，其实当年我都把房间照顾得还不错嘛。比上不足，比下有余。犹记得当时提出要搬走的时候，房东还有所不解；现在她应该都懂了吧。毕竟，没有人能够在夜店月高人骚动时还可以一面听着舞曲一面睡觉的。
想到这里，我又想起了她。
她是个很模糊的角色。她的大部分时间都小心翼翼的匿藏在她男人的背后。她平时把房子打理得干干净净，做功课，看电视；男人回来后便紧贴着，算是小女人一个。房东来收租了，她会很快的消失人迹；仿佛她做的一切都是为了她男人。有时候看着她（文章需要，别想太远），我会怀疑她男人是否值得她那么死心塌地地付出？他会懂得珍惜吗？
那天，我在劏人杂货店又看到了她。她依然那么脆弱，依然小心翼翼地跟在她男人的背后。也许，她男人还算懂得珍惜吧。
(Image Adapted from The Sun, Tuesday 21 July 2009 page 6)
Somehow this antisocial sticker made its way from a Sunlight taxi to a lonely traffic island, just a day after its launching.
Anyway, what it said was right…”rain is a blessing, not an emergency; there’s no need to turn on the hazard light.” Anyway, hazard light have more uses than ever now. I have seen big Mercedes Benz storming on North-South Highway with both front lights and hazard lights on. Some even have strobing front lights! Makes their rich cars look like ambulances.
I remembered when I did that lousy presentation on iPhone 3GS in class, I mentioned that it is coming on 9 July. At least it is partially true now. The pic above just appeared this afternoon.
Sign up here if you have interest! Maxis will tell you when it’s really available. I hope the pricing will be about the same, much better if reduced :D
Morning. 1130.
My friend and I went to visit the future benches of my research group with my supervisor. So happened that one another group was washing their seaweeds to prepare for future extraction.
There was this girl who saw my friend. There was I who saw this girl. So the girl waved hands at my friend. At the same time, I also greeted this girl out of politeness. But my friend was too busy talking to the supervisor and she didn’t notice the girl’s friendly smile and waving hands. And this girl didn’t respond/notice to my greeting too. Finally she gave up. Finally I gave up.
So both of us probably ended up looking like idiots.
Morning. 1135.
I saw him. So he is a postgrad student. Why does postgrads prefers undergrads and vice versa anyway? Knowledgeable and smart? Maturity? Cute juniors? Let’s hope I can find out when I’m a postgrad student. That is, if I ever join postgrad.
Evening, 1645.
I was reading dissertations. It’s amazing how they can make the acknowledgement page so noticeable. I’d like to thank A, B, bla bla bla. They say Malaysians are one of the most religious people around. So it is no surprise to see I’d like to thank God for His wisdom and strength, etc.
Until…
“I’d like to thank Buddha and God for giving me wisdom and opportunity...” Wow, two (contradicting) religions! Who gave you wisdom and who gave you opportunity? Buddha gave wisdom and God gave opportunity? Or the other way round? Either way, it must be interesting to know how Buddha and God worked together to bless their common believer.
Time flies, and May is soon over.
Very apparently, I have been very inactive here. I am postulating that there is a law of proportionality between free time and laziness to blog. The more busy you are, the more you want to update your blog. The more free you are, the less frequent you see your blog. Makes sense huh?
Many things have happened since my last update. Giant Teluk Intan’s finally opening in 28th May.With a working cineplex, a (or two? I’m not sure if TF is considered) working hypermarket, and a working McDonalds’, I think Teluk Intan is finally functioning. I even noticed a significant increase in traffic (means bad) nowadays; so many cars waiting at the traffic lights and even more cars beating them. This probably means more people will stay here instead of visiting Ipoh every now and then. Even PAS had just organised its state convention here at the newly-built Arena Square yesterday.
Good signs that this place is gaining significance? Convincing signs that people here have deep pockets (usually refer to the Langkap population who often has more money than ordinary town people like me) and can’t wait to spend on movies, McD and shopping? Yeah, hopefully, minus the traffic part.
Today is the day of Chitrapurnami in Teluk Intan in the chettiar temple in town. The festival is definitely the largest Hindu festival in Teluk Intan. Every year, Teluk Intan Hindus from the entire country will return and pray to respective deities for blessings.
So I was there. Of course, it continues till tonight, but I am most likely not going (too tired). So here are some pics that I captured this morning.
Actually there was a DAP and a Makkal Sakthi booth among the stalls. I even saw Ngeh Koo Ham while I was walking towards the temple. But I did not expect this:
Apparently, the (former) Menteri Besar of Perak is here. (From the MB) Mohd. Nizar, Hj. Anuar (ADUN of my area), emcee, unknown, and Siva the (former) Speaker who was dragged out of the Dewan two days back.
Yes; Siva the (former) Speaker is very popular. I think the main reason I recognised him is his smile. He can easily advertise for Darlie or Colgate for that matter. Haha.
My ADUN speaking, and another close up of Mohd. Nizar.
Datuk taking his puff, while sitting on a faithful. It is very easy to identify a Datuk; he likes curut (cigar) a lot, and most of the time he walks with a cane. Sometimes he takes two cigars together. I remembered the last time I went to Chitrapurnami one Datuk puffed three cigars.
Another Datuk giving blessings to a devotee.
The one in the centre, I believe, is Kaliamman.
Devotees shaving their head.
The leaning tower in festive atmosphere.
Sorry for the distance at which this pic is taken,but it seems that the Giant signboard has been put up finally. This means one thing: Giant is coming after all. Indeed, I had assumed it didn’t make it here because the building renovation hasn’t been progressing for many months now.
There is one thing good about opening all these ‘new’ things in small towns: the town folks who are very bored already will take turns visiting all these new places (e.g. McDonalds and BIG Cinema). Now let see how many will go to Giant on its first day of opening, which I think, will be soon.
It is official: BIG Cinema, run by Lotus FiveStar Group who operates similar cinemas across the country (including Sitiawan) has opened in Teluk Intan. It is located at the former site of Rex Cinema. The pulling down of Rex Cinema means the oldest surviving cinema in Teluk Intan is officially no more. This new cineplex is said to have 3 halls, sitting maximum 150 people each. Not bad for Teluk Intan…
May do a follow up when I go back.
UPDATE: Cinema showing time available at here. At time of updating (10am 2/5/09) there are only 3 movies available! WTH?
I don’t know how and why, but it seems that I had got myself a visitor from Epping, Sydney!
Epping means a lot to me. I stayed there for quite some time when I was in Sydney. It is a very nice suburb with several small forest reserves surrounding it (and parks too). Nearby Epping are two Chinese majority suburb of Carlingford and Eastwood, which will make you less home-sick, at least by a little bit (roasted pork, char siew, dim sum!) Although you will still feel some cultural differences with the Chinese there because most of them are from mainland China and Hong Kong, I think food is more important than accents and the minor cultural gap!
Now, I kinda miss Australia again…
Yes; the latest talk in town, apparently, is swine flu.
Click here to go to the Swine Flu Outbreak Map. Avoid going to these places, if possible.
P/S: It seems like Korea and Australia are already having suspects! Hope they are disproved.
UPDATED: An impressive map. Maybe it is a good idea for everyone to avoid Europe and America for now. 
KUALA LUMPUR: Three weeks after Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak went down to the ground to visit three localities in the heart of the city, the prime minister Saturday sprung another surprise when he went on a walkabout at the bustling Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman (Jalan TAR) and Puduraya here.
…(edited)…
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at Masjid Jamek LRT station.-Bernama
Later, he hitched a ride on the crowded LRT (he had to stand) from Masjid Jamek station to the Plaza Rakyat station where he walked to the infamous ever congested Puduraya where the express bus terminal for the northern and southern zones is located.
Taking break from the sweltering heat, Najib then stopped by one of the stalls in the building for a cool drink.
Najib, flanked by a phalanx of bodyguards and an entourage of officials, also attracted a large crowd of onlookers, who wasted no time snapping photographs of the nation's sixth premier.
An excited woman, armed with her cameraphone and squeezing her way through the crowd, was heard saying: "Saya mahu ambil gambar perdana menteri saya" (I want to take pictures of my prime minister).
Later, Najib inspected the long-abandoned Plaza Rakyat building project located next to Puduraya before departing at 4.25pm.
"He wants the project to resume as soon as possible," Raja Nong Chik said.
The project, which initially cost RM1.2 billion, had been abandoned for 12 years after it changed hands many times. Its current developer is Global Upline.
The Plaza Rakyat project was supposed to comprise three buildings - a 79-storey, 49-storey and 21-storey for offices, condominiums and a budget hotel.
Finally! Finally one Prime Minister noticed that Plaza Rakyat has been abandoned for such a long time! Although it is much too late now to resume work on it (even if it is finished I wouldn’t have chance to use it so frequently anymore), nevertheless it will benefit future generations (and future tourists).
Please, Mr. Najib, please finish this thing which I always describe as the biggest scar on the face of KL as soon as possible! I am so sick of Puduraya already, which is heavily overcrowded, both passengers and buses. Just forget the 79, 49, and 21 stories if necessary, we just need the bus terminal.
P/S: Why nobody bothered to offer him a seat on the LRT huh? Anyway, if he sits, people sitting next to him would probably have to move to make way for his guards?
Ubuntu, one of the most popular Linux based Operating System, has just been released minutes ago. You may follow this link for desktop edition (Japan’s Yamagata University’s server which I think is very fast, at least for me. UPDATE: Go here and choose other server if you can’t get into Yamagata’s; it seems like it is congested already.) to get a copy and start enjoying! Several features have been highlighted in this release, including boot speed as fast as 25 seconds, better power management, even a netbook version!
Yesterday I had the pleasure to go to a steamboat buffet at Poh Loong Banquet Hall in Teluk Intan. Poh Loong Banquet Hall is formerly Garuda Restaurant, which specialised in Indonesian food. Anyway, it was bought by Poh Loong Restaurant last year and has since converted into a ‘banquet hall’.
Poh Loong Restaurant has apparently put in a lot of effort to modernise and renew its image recently. Part of the effort, I imagine, is to use plenty of English and impress town folks with ‘canggih’ terms. That is probably why the restaurant was named ‘banquet hall’ instead of just another restaurant, although I remain doubtful of the name. The ‘banquet hall’ opened as a steamboat buffet restaurant more than a month ago. Price is per adult RM17.90.
Anyway, the usual story goes. My father’s friend’s birthday and so everyone went there for his celebration. Besides that, there is also a nice 10% cut currently if you can show the discount coupon.
One Stop Steamboat Solution! I’m sure there are a lot of effort to modernise the restaurant’s appeal by using English, but the advertisement manager may want to look into the grammar a bit.
So we arrived at this ‘banquet hall’. There seem to be a lot of people here, given the fact that it was a Tuesday, and economy wasn’t that good recently.
Yeah, there’s really a lot of people around! So I went looking for food.
My god brother who looked very depressed for the purpose of this picture. Don’t be cheated! He was playing with a SE Walkman phone (of an unknown model ‘cos I don’t keep track of SE phones)!
Directly at the centre of all foods is the sauce table. Seem to have a lot of sauces huh? And “Thank you for not wasted!”.
Doesn’t look bad…plenty of variety, majority of them being all kind of balls and meatcakes. Pork balls, big fish balls, small fish balls, salmon fishcakes, etc. Molluscs et. al. seem very much absent, and later I learnt that that was because everyone made clean sweeps everytime they were out from the kitchen.
In the end, I contented myself with these first. Fried chickens. Not that they exist for long. I was luckily the second person to attack these poor fried chicken pieces before everybody else cleaned the tray.
Some dessert. Quite sweet.
I was actually quite satisfied with the food provided (I don’t eat that much molluscs) except the soups. We got ourselves a tom-yam soup and a normal soup. I must say the tom-yam soup is a disappointment. Didn’t taste like one, didn’t smell like one. The normal soup also tasted a bit bland. Soup is such an important part of steamboat, and it should not be omitted in any situation! They probably added too much water to cater to plenty of customers? 
There seems to be side orders as well! Let’s try one of them.
Lobster! Both salad lobster and kam-heong lobster that we ordered actually tasted quite nice. Of course lo, it is lobster ma.
This is actually something I liked best in there. Ice-cream on bread. Prepared by first toasting the bread and then put two scoops of ice-cream on it while hot. Fruits are optional. Yummy. I ate two of these.
And so I left the place in the end with a guilty stomach and 2kg heavier.
Verdict: The tom-yam soup is actually quite disappointing. The shortage of seafood also seemed to be a problem (maybe they’re trying to save costs), but it didn’t bother me since I don’t take seafood much. Food variety is OK. Just remember to sweep at the first opportunity if you really love seafood. Environment good. Image and arrangements good. Service good. Just lots more to improve on, especially food and the soup.
Yesterday was such a hot day. I felt like almost drying up even when driving with air-cond on full blast in the afternoon. However, today is a complete opposite of yesterday; it’s so cooling after a midnight shower and the sun is not even out yet. Here are some pics of the blue blue sky of yesterday.
It reminds me of the scorching Australian summer everytime I see a cloudless sky like this. Not that we get to see this often here. Well…probably just 7 days in a year. I’m grateful we have lots of clouds throughout of the year. Gosh, I’m still feeling the heat from yesterday by looking at this pic!
On another note, the infamous Arena Square which had killed a worker during a construction accident 2 years ago is now up running. Not sure what it can be used for though. Probably for events and weddings, and political talks.
View from Dewan Bandaran.
