It's My Birthday

I turned 27 yesterday. Hip Hip Hooray! A year older and my hair grows a few more grey ones. Sucks! I am getting old obviously. **grin** I even have a few wrinkle lines... **double the grin**

And this is what I get for my Birthday...

An Ice Cream Cake from Baskin Robbins... courtesy of Cindy Chow and my mom. They picked a Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Cake for this ocassion.

One close up shot of the cake with unlit candle before it's being torched!

And this is the one with the candle lit.

A birthday song, a big wish on the cake, the big blow off on the candle and wa lah! Time to eat the cake! A BIG SLICE FOR THE BIRTHDAY BOY of course! Nothing interesting actually happened on my birthday this year. Just another ordinary one, where I think it grows even more boring than the last one. How I wish I can have my birthday at Mcdonalds, just like those kids use to have? I just would like to thank my dearest for being there for me for my birthday this year though. It has been a tough year growing up to be someone.

Three Phases Of Our Life

I received yet again an email from my colleagues something that do show the realities of life. Do sit down and ponder if it does happen or seen this out of our own life so far. Can we do anything about it? You got to decide it yourselves once you complete reading this.

We have 3 stupid stages in life....

Teenage: Have Time + Energy but No Money.

Working Age: Have Money + Energy but No Time.

Old Age: Have Time + Money but No Energy.

Think about this stages of our lives. For me, I do believe that its quite true.

The Runaway Loser

For the sake of privacy, no names will be revealed for this posting. The main reason for this post is to get some feedback from my dear readers how should my friend have acted. A friend of mine, came to me crying on one of the days a few weeks ago saying that her future to be husband were straying off. "It's the Pre-Marriage Stress" her future husband claims it. He wants to postpone the registration date to another date because "Oh! It's the chinese calendar lunar 7th month" when he's a bloody christian; "I'm just having this registration jitters and what will happen in the future" when he has already proposed more than 3 months ago and finally got caught red handed with later admitting he was seeing another outside. Fuck! Why would he do such a thing in the first place after being in a healthy relationship with my friend for the past 3 years?

So does that mean every man whose going to get married should at least stray before settling down? I am annoyed and pissed. VERY! It's like rubbing insults on men and gave a bad impression for the rest when that coward decides to bail out on his proposal to my friend while he's happily fooling outside until he decides to try to runaway. Not all of us men are such schemers and pathetic cowards. Mark my words. The only thing that he made look bad is himself and his own parents who raised him if he does bail himself out of the entire relationship.

Some say marriage is a bliss and relationships are just the tip of the ice berg. Then why not immediately get married as soon as you start a relationship so that you can cover the entire ice berg? If you are not ready for marriage, don't do it. Don't propose. Why men will be so willing to say "YES! I will propose now!" when they think they are ready whereas they are not physically and mentally aren't? A boy who acts like a man will look utterly stupid and pathetic if you don't hold up to the words you tell your partner. You don't call yourself a man, you call yourself a fucked up loser. What I know about marriage is about love and commitment to your partner, don't just talk abour marriage and then go screw with another woman outside.

What I would like to do to him is to pummel him if I could whether my friend likes it or not. Beating him up is for the sake of many men not for my friend, and if I don't do it, others would too. There are plenty of men out there who are not in a relationship and for him to play a leg on 2 different boats is just like playing with fire. I hope my friend will eventually understand, examine all corners if possible before deciding to even marry this guy to be her future husband.

A Very Morning Breakfast

Usually, waking up early in the morning is not an ideal way to start my weekends but there were exceptions whereby I had to do so because either my family members wants me to or I am abroad. This time around, it's because there's a few errands my mom wants me to help her out... that is dropping her off at the bus station (she's on her way to Genting for a function). After the little drive on a very cool morning, I was wondering what to get for breakfast around Bayan Lepas area. Then it hits me instantly!

Joo Leong Cafe's (裕隆茶室) toasts and eggs. Located at Kampung Sungai Tiram, Bayan Lepas area (its on the main stretch of the Jalan Sultan Azlan Ahmad Shah heading towards Penang International Airport), it opens from the wee hours in the morning (if my memory serves me right, breakfast starts from 6.30am to 11:30am). Much of the factory workers will come to this place for breakfast during the normal weekdays (close on Mondays) while families will throng the cafe during the weekends. You could tell if the place are crowded or not from at least 200 meters from the shop as you will see cars parked on the side of the road leading towards the cafe.

This place were made famous when it was highlighted on local Chinese and English newspaper for its huge number in sales for its toasts and eggs. The toast which spreads only with butter , was cut into small pieces before serving. There's sugar placed on the table so you may want to add sugar onto the bread or perhaps you may want to dip it into the soft boiled eggs if you ordered any.

For its half boiled eggs, the eggs were boiled perfectly that the egg yolk is not really cooked so when you stir add soy sauce and some pepper into it, you can drink it straight off without having to choke yourself.

This place doesn't only serve toasts and eggs of course, it also has its local delicacies such as Nasi Lemak that has a variety of selection ranging from prawns, fish meat, ikan bilis (little anchovies) and egg or you can choose to have fried noodles or glass noodles.

It's also the location used by local newspaper distributor to distribute its newspaper from this cafe and most of the time, the distribution is done by 8am. The Star Newspaper factory is located just a couple of blocks away on the opposite side of the road so these guys got their papers there and use this place as their sorting station. Breakfast that comes with the morning newspaper, it's a good way to start the morning definitely.

If you happened to drop by the area and it's wee hours in the morning, don't forget to give this place a try as you will find the shop buzzing with people and you could even see one or two who are still in their highs from just waking up. Haha! And the best part is, this place is not going to cost you your arm or leg as the damage that I had on that morning was RM10+ for 2 people with an order of 2 sets of bread, eggs, fried noodles, nasi lemak and drinks.

Irish Jokes To Ease A Tense Week

It has been a very intense week, with teambuilding, work and all, I didn't manage to catch up with my own blog, abandoning it for almost 2 weeks! To make it up to my fellow readers, here's something to cheer you up. Been digging my work mailbox and found this Irish Joke in the inbox. Hope everyone will enjoy it.

Two Irishmen walk into a pet shop in Dingle, they walk over to the bird section and Gerry says to Paddy, 'Dat's dem.' The owner comes over and asks if he can help them. 'Yeah, we'll take four of dem dere little budgies in dat cage up dere,' says Gerry. The owner puts the budgies in a cardboard box. Paddy and Gerry pay for the birds, leave the shop and get into Gerry's truck to drive to the top of the Connor Pass. At the Connor Pass, Gerry looks down at the 1000 foot drop and says, 'Dis looks like a grand place.' He takes two birds out of the box, puts one on each shoulder and jumps off the cliff. Paddy watches as the budgies fly off and Gerry falls all the way to the bottom, killing himself stone dead. Looking down at the remains of his best pal, Paddy shakes his head and says, 'Fook dat. Dis budgie jumping is too fook'n dangerous for me!'

THERE'S MORE...

Moment's later; Seamus arrives up at ConnorPass. He's been to the pet shop too and walks up to the edge of the cliff carrying another cardboard box in one hand and a shotgun in the other. 'Hi, Paddy, watch dis,' Seamus says. He takes a parrot from the box and lets him fly free. He then throws himself over the edge of the cliff with the gun. Paddy watches as half way down, Seamus takes the gun and shoots the parrot. Seamus continues to plummet down and down until he hits the bottom and breaks every bone in his body. Paddy shakes his head and says, 'And I'm never trying dat parrotshooting either!'

IT'S NOT OVER YET...

Paddy is just getting over the shock of losing two friends when Sean appears. He's also been to the pet shop and is carrying a cardboard box out of which he pulls a chicken. Sean then takes the chicken by its legs and hurls himself off the cliff and disappears down and down until he hits a rock and breaks his spine. Once more Paddy shakes his head. 'Fook dat, lads. First dere was Gerry with his budgie jumping, den Seamus parrotshooting... And now Sean and his fook'n hengliding!'

That's all from me for now. I will write something regarding my recent team building activity that eventually turned awry.

Those Hazy Days... *Cough*

It's those days again. It's happening just too freaking often and it's never a miss that our neighbour chooses to do it on the driest days of the season to perform something that they think no country can do a shit about it... Open Burning. I think no one can say anything to them because either they are as dumb as they look or they just being as daft as a brush. Waking up in a hazy morning only means a few things, bad air, bad health, bad environment and a tonne of dust to wipe off when weekend comes. Oh crap!

From Sumatra, monsoon winds blew the smoke eastward and hence creating negative environmental effects on other Southeast Asia nations (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Brunei). Thick haze covered much of Southeast Asia for weeks and caused noticeable and widespread human health problems. In order to curb these pollution/haze, the ASEAN organization which consists of 10 countries made up the Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution which was signed in 2002 between all ASEAN nations to reduce haze pollution in Southeast Asia.

All countries signed, except for Indonesia and it's been bloody 7 years now, Indonesia was "dragging its feet" upon the matter. It's just like the Kyoto Protocol whereby the Americans did not say "Yes" because they are the main culprits behind all the environmental issues, just like the Indonesians, for staining the air these days here in Malaysia. Most foreign experts think that the government of Indonesia does not consider this a serious problem; well the only f*ck that those guys ever care about was how to get its 250 million people to survive their never ending domestic issues.

Indonesia has outlawed using fire for land clearance but the laws are widely flouted in remote areas of the country and the government seems helpless to control the situation. Thanks to the bunch Indonesian bastards that doesn't help to curb their own kind from open burning and to rub salt into the condition, I'm starting to think that those f*cks are promoting more open burning during these dry seasons.

I hope those Indonesians will choke on their own smoke for once and see how much we have been taking up to their bullshit haze for the past decade; or perhaps those Tsunami's can just wash up those bastards away for I don't see the reason why they should be spared for their mistreatment to others in the first place. We are humans too and why do we have the heartfelt compassion for them when they are in trouble while they are not doing anything for us in return? Love our neighbours? Literary, I don't give a f*ck about them as they gave us abundance of problem more than my daily "PMS-ing" colleague.

Double Whammy

"It's about time you blogged something there!!" I constantly remind myself to do so over the weekends and yet, it's either I got occupied over the weekend or the internet line at home is being knocked off. "EXCUSES!!!" I am not making any either. People might think that my time to blog are getting less and less or my interest with my blog are starting to dwindle, eventually all of those are not true! I love to blog and I love this BLOG! Lack of time spent here doesn't mean I will totally abandon this blog. I will eventually be hysterical if they shut down inactive blogs (if they do, what kind of blog provider this place has become?)

Now the weekends are not entirely dull. I had 4 movie tickets to spent you see, so I've been spending my weekends for a few hours, seated in the cold dark room of the cinemas. Haha! So the tickets were spent properly to catch up to the latest movies (except Harry Potter, dang! I heard so much so-so reviews about it). On our first movie, me and my dear went to watched...

Name: Ice Age 3 - Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Language: English

Date of release: 1st July 2009 (USA)

Director: Carlos Saldanha

Starring: Ray Romano, Simon Pegg, Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo

The story basically heads back to the Ice Age where Scrat is still on the hunt to hold onto his beloved acorn, while finding a possible romance in a female sabre-toothed squirrel named Scratte. Manny and Ellie, having since become an item, are expecting a baby, which leaves Manny anxious to ensure that everything is perfect for when his baby arrives. Diego is fed up with being treated like a house-cat and ponders the notion that he is becoming too laid-back. Sid begins to wish for a family of his own, and so steals some dinosaur eggs which leads to Sid ending up in a strange underground world where his herd must rescue him, while dodging dinosaurs and facing danger left and right, and meeting up with a one-eyed weasel known as Buck who hunts dinosaurs intently.

The movie is right to get a few negative comments and I think that this movie should eventually end its trilogy runs as the jokes are getting extremely dry and not that exciting to watch. From watching the trailer, with Scrat ever after going after his beloved NUT, we already can predict that there's not much to laugh out of the movie. Adding Simon Pegg as Buck doesn't really add the zest into the movie, those guys in the production are just trying too hard to please the audience. Although there are still a few moments that puts the laughs into a comedy show but for the rest, I found the comedy sequences not so entertaining and even the kids behind my seat started to make noises. From there, it can only meant one thing, this movie has lost its touch with the children. Time has come to call for the movie to retire soon.

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars

Now the second movie has more value than what it sounds and it's worth the money spent/free ticket. Again, me and my dear went to the movie for 2 consecutive days to watch our 2nd movie...

Name: The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Language: English
Date of release: 4th June 2009 (USA)
Director: Tony Scott
Starring: Denzel Washington, John Travolta, John Turturro

The story basically tells about Walter Garber who's a MTA Dispatcher, whose ordinary day is thrown into chaos by an audacious crime: the hijacking of a subway train that is in Garbers charge. NYPD Hostage Negotiator Detective Camonetti, who finds he is a fish out of water without Garber. Ryder, the criminal mastermind who, as leader of a highly-armed gang of four, including a subway-knowledgeable henchman, threatens to execute the train's passengers unless a large ransom is paid within one hour. As the tension mounts beneath his feet, Garber employs his vast knowledge of the subway system in a battle to outwit Ryder and save the hostages. Camonetti starts the movie taking charge of the situation, suspecting Garbers complicity, but realizes his mistake when his actions cause the death of a hostage. Realizing that only Garber can solve the problem, he spends the rest of the movie making Garbers job easier by becoming the Liaison between his SWAT Team and Garber. In the end, it is Garber who solves the riddle of how the criminals intend to get away with the money.

Everyone thought this movie will be a complete waste of money to watch it in the cinemas. Now that will be like judging a book by its cover. Although that its a remake of the original Palomar Production/Walter Matthau-starring thriller from 1974, this movie didn't looked like such big flop many would have said it to be. It's not like Die Hard 4.0, there are some scenes that grips you to the edge of your seats. It's also a psychological thriller whereby Ryder pushes Garber to the edge where Ryder toys with Garber's personal condition which makes it more interesting to watch. "Can you say no to me when I have a gun pointing to a hostage?" Undoubtedly its great performance from both Travolta and Washington with these 2 old stars had the most cameo time than the rest. I had fun for this second movie although it lacks of a pretty story line, but movies are made to be enjoyed and this one got my attention.

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars