San Francisco

In California, we are 16 hours behind Malaysia but somehow I didn't feel the jetlag that people always talk about. I don't know why. I kind of want to know how that feels but I didn't really feel sleepy during the day and awake during the night. It was just normal for me. Today, we went to collect our car at San Jose airport. They gave us a Hyundai Sonata which is quite a powerful car and spacious too. After that, my colleague's brother took us to San Francisco. It was about a 40 minute drive to reach there. The temperature there was much lower that Sunnyvale so we had to wear thicker jackets. One of the place that we stopped over in San Francisco was Lombard Street. It's a really beautiful, curly, curvy and steep street whereby if you look from bottom up, it's simply captivating.

After that, Ivy and I dragged our butts up to the top and to take photos from top down this time. We are just too free! The houses in SF are cute and cosy looking. It's so full of hills there that most roads go up and down..up and down. Such a beautiful view. We also went to see the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz from afar and took a couple of photos amidst the windy weather. During the trip, we stopped over at IHop for some light snacks. It's quite a famous pancake/waffle diner-like place. I say it's famous because it was full to the brim. Later on, we visited the Exploratorium. Not inside. We took some photos of the landscaping there and set off to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. Now, that place is hip, hop and happening! So many restaurants, so many people. Very interesting place. As the time ticked away, day turned into night and we set off back to Sunnyvale and to get ready for the next day.

Off to USA

I have to catch my flight at 10.30 am to Singapore and from there to Taipei and finally to San Francisco on business class. To cut the story short, I missed all of that except the Penang-Singapore flight. Not my fault. All SIA's fault. That flight was delayed by an hour and a half. I don't even want to dwell on that matter here because it pisses me off. Anyway, we finally got a flight to San Francisco which transits at Hong Kong. We reach San Francisco at 7pm on 28 October US time of course... :) time travel huh? It's funny when I think of it. An airplane is like a freaking time machine. Well, the one bad thing about this journey is the delay and the fact that we were forced to take economy class on the alternate flight because everything was fully booked. I was so freaking pissed. I argued with shitty ground staff at Penang airport and the only thing they can say is "Oh, you'll have to work this out with the staff in Singapore and they'll arrange something for you". Arrange their ass ok! I got there and i went to the transfer counter and started proclaiming that this is all absurd and I'm not flying economy. Well nothing worked, the only thing they could do was put me on standby for business class. Crap! That's like saying no chance ok? If it's so full, and that they committed that I will get priority standby for business, why is it that another passenger who didn't even insist on getting priority standby be moved to business class when we reached Hong Kong? This is absurd. I was so pissed of at that passenger because he did nothing but stood there and took the freaking credit when I was the one arguing for my business class bookings. By the way, during the flight, I was sitting at the window seat and next to me was my colleague and next to her on the aisle seat was a freaking log. Tree trunk. Pillar...whatever you want to call it. That bitch just sits there and sleeps like a piece of wood. Doesn't budge and the whole 15 hour or so flight, never once did she get up to go to the washroom. I don't know what's going on but I think she's got a gigantic bladder. My colleague and I had to go out a couple of times to walk around and to the washroom and it's so hard waking that tree trunk up. What a bitch! I go to the washroom for a minute or so and I come back and there she is, sleeping again and didn't even have the courtesy to stand up so that I can get in easier. She's a freaking wood with the expression as if her dog just died. Screw her! All Anyway, I reached SFO finally. My friend picked us up and we checked in to the hotel. It was chilly in Sunnyvale. Quite a change but I like it. Later on, we went for supper and finally settled in around midnight. Next day, off to San Francisco for a tour!

Save me from myself

It's been hell of a long time since the end of MBA, yet it was just a month ago. I haven't achieved much truthfully, none of the 'having fun', 'celebrating freedom' or 'feeling light and easy' happened at all. In fact, the past 1 month has been filled with problems and issues right from 1st Oct onwards. I came back from Singapore on 13th Oct after a week there for training. Can't say it was exceptionally fun. It wasn't. A chance to travel is a good thing but if we're travelling on business trips...it ain't fun. It's stressful. I'd prefer to travel on holidays rather than travel on business related ones, coz then we won't be able to fully enjoy it. I'm off to US next week for the first time for 2 whole weeks. I'm kinda excited about it but yet I feel upset and a little down about it because it's a business trip, not a vacation. Speaks for itself. I hate packing, I hate trying to figure out how many clothes to take (too much is too heavy, too little is not enough %#$#@!!!!) These past 2 weeks has been full of rushing and moody blues week and sometimes I just wish I could have a break. Year ends are always hectic times...for some it's hectic partying season, for me, it's times of depression and agony. :) Why moody blues? Maybe overwhelmed by the upcoming US trip and I just wonder when I'll get the chance to just sit in front of the TV and relax. Trust me, I've been sitting in front of the TV for the past month but my mind has been constantly worrying about work. Gosh...I wonder how it would feel like just to take a really long vacation away from it. I can only dream about it.

Anyway, 2 weeks gone from home, half the world away. I'm gonna miss everything about it and everyone. I do hope I can at least enjoy a little bit of the trip, excluding the work related times. Ding, please don't get anymore M fever. :P

food for thought

This article on today's Star newspaper (22 October 2006) under StarMag section, page 5, entitled "You left, We stayed". It's about people who migrate overseas and constantly blabber about how great life is there and indirectly indicating that 'losers' stay on. I like that article. We choose our own lives and we make the best of it. No where is perfect...but in the end, no where is like home. Cheers to the writer!

4 days post-mba

It has been almost a week of sorts. I spent last Saturday afternoon completing my final of all final exams of MBA. Alas! After 21 months, I have closed another chapter of my education life. The next day, I went down to KL for a one day trip and Monday night was a very fun night. I went for a company dinner and my colleagues and I had loads of fun, dance and great music. My Tuesday and Wednesday was usual with nothing much interesting going on except that I can proudly declare that I managed to do 2 things that I wanted to do.

1. I brought out my dusty 5 year old guitar and tried to play something. I guess a few notes from Johnny Cash's Walk The Line was reasonable enough to call an achievement...I mean, despite the fact that I suck at it. Come on! it's not that easy to learn ok!!

2. Finally, applied for an MPH readers club member card. I know...I know, I listed a whole load of crap that I wanted to do in my previous post but I need some time to do that, especially the part which involves cleaning my room. :)

Things to do after the last day of MBA

Count down..... 0 days to go!

1. Buy my first vanilla latte from Starbucks, sit and watch people walk by.
2. Pray hard for good results.
3. Help Ding burn his books ? *this is still pending confirmation*
4. Read my brand new novels till my eyes pop out.
5. One Tree Hill and TVB Cold Blood Warm Heart marathon.
6. Spring clean my bedroom...again.
7. Apply for MPH member card.
Correction (due to special request)
9. Seafood feast *Ding, Peen, Lynn & Soon Yee let's go someday and get diarrhea for the next 3 days*
9. Try self-learn Mandarin, Spanish and revise Japanese. *what a challenge..i'm screwed*
10. Go shoe shopping.

Life is like a novel with its end ripped out

"Life is like a novel with its end ripped out". This phrase caught my attention today. It's a part of the lyrics of one of Rascal Flatt's songs. Well put...Life really is nothing but a story without an end until we finally reach the end. Yet again we won't know what the end would be...*deep*. I don't even know what I just said.
Frankly, this life journey is so unpredictable. Literally said, it's just like a novel with the end ripped out. We're happily reading a novel and we can't find the last page...what's going to happen? happy ending? No one knows. We meet all kinds of people in our lives..I know I have. And these different kinds of people either make you or break you, yet again, we wouldn't know it till the end. Sometimes things could be going so well and the next minute, we could be clawing at each other for no apparent reason. Freaky isn't it? Sometimes bad things that happen are followed by good things. Sometimes it is followed by worst things..and getting worser until you crawl into a hole and wish that you will just disappear into thin air. I hope that doesn't happen. Anyway, I think I like the thought of life being a novel with the end ripped out. I wouldn't want to know my end until the day comes because then if I had known...that would be boring. I'm definitely not the type to go sky-diving, mountain-climbing, re-creating dinosaurs or wrestling with lions, so why would I want to know how the rest of my story goes. I'd prefer it to surprise me...in a good way that is! Like maybe I might stumble upon a winning lottery ticket, or suddenly wake up in an orange Ferrari which is mine..all mine! or...*reality check* find myself fantasizing about materialistic items and suddenly fall back down to earth to where my 5 assignments are waiting to be finished and exam waiting to be studied for and work waiting for me to crack my head on. *sigh*

Training-The Breakup-Assignments

9.32am on a Saturday morning. Hell..it's been a week of fun and downs too. I just came back from KL on Wednesday night where I went there for training. The training session was quite alright, interesting learning experience. Not much happening besides that. I stayed near the training center which was a plus because I didn't have to wake up early and rush. It only takes me 5 minutes to walk there.

So back home then. It's not so great. I've been feeling pretty moody and down because of 2 assignments that need to be completed. Everytime I open them I feel like throwing myself at a brick wall. Gosh...I never knew doing assignments can be so freakishly depressing. I hope to finish one by today. It's really taking a toll on me...I get so upset that I feel guilty not able to read my storybooks without thinking about assignments. I went to watch The Breakup on last night. Somehow, it was a good show but I constantly kept thinking about assignments that are waiting for me at home. How upsetting it is. Now I'm awake and sitting here..staring at space. I'm doing my homework now. Hopefully I can get it over with. Now about The Breakup. Jennifer Aniston looked so damn good in there. I don't understand how in the world Brad Pitt can leave her for Angelina...I mean yea sure..Angelina's sexy, pretty, pouty and stuff...but she does portray a certain image......scary. Well, whatever. Anyway, the whole show is nice and funny except the ending. There was no ending which made all of us more pissed off.

Alright, I'll end off here. Guilt is bearing me down. I better go continue my homework.

Cheers~!

Post Exam Syndrome

Exam for one of my papers were over on Saturday. Two more subjects and I'll finally end this very tough journey. Now I'm spending the rest of the week in decline mode before the next subject starts. I spent my Sunday lazing around nursing a headache and stayed up from 2am to 5am watching World Cup finals. Later in the afternoon on Monday, I went to watch Superman with Ding. Not bad..quite a couple of funny moments too. I'm trying to cram as many songs into my head as possible for all the times that I missed and all the times that I spent worrying about assignments and exam that I couldn't even listen to music in peace. As of this moment, Jessica Simpson is pretty much yelling at the top of her lungs from my speakers. Gosh, this girl is loud! I better switch to something less dramatic before my ear drums explode and splatter all the gooey matter from my ears out. Patrizio Buanne belting out some Italian song in his smooth silky voice just did the trick. I'm just swaying to the music and enough for this post as I'm starting to feel floaty and I'm not aware anymore of what I'm typing..that's all for now before I start typing gibberish. Goodnight!

Summing up World Cup 2006

Here's my version of what I thought of this year's World Cup. Actually this World Cup was the only one that I actually paid attention to. Back in 2002, I didn't really care to watch. In 1998 I was still too caught up with NBA basketball. And I took the effort to stay up from 2am to watch the finals between Italy and France. That was really good and coincidentally, Monday was a holiday so I thank my lucky stars.

It started off with me supporting 3 teams, England, Holland and Spain. Well, it was a no-brainer that England totally got kicked out with their lacklustre display except for good work by Beckham, Ashley Cole and some others. Holland got kicked out by Portugal which was a big boo boo and Portugal went on to knock England out which was even worst considering the fact that I never liked Cristiano Ronaldo. Spain...ahh...Spain Spain Spain. They were good, young but good. I guess give them a couple more years and they'll 'blossom'.

On to the finals between Italy and France. I considered that an enjoyable game to watch because I didn't support either side and I didn't hate either side. Whoever wins, I support! *Grin*..but Italy did play well and I was pretty impressed by Fabio Cannavaro. He's really good. Aside from his good looks, he does play impressively. It's true! That's all for World Cup.

Italy are the champions of the world~!!!

End of The Road

Hail, The Great David Beckham!
Too bad, world cup hopes are dashed and over for my favourite teams England, Holland, Spain and Argentina. Beckham has stepped down as captain of England but nevertheless, he was and is still one of the best players ever and he played such a pivotal and remarkable role in England's journey in this year's World Cup.
The final four : France, Portugal, Germany and Italy. I hope France wins!

Birthday Greetings

I would like to wish 2 of my best buddies a happy birthday, if they are reading this.

Happy Birthday, Soon Yee

(on 26th June 2006)

Happy Birthday, Yee Leng

(on 27th June 2006)

World Cup Wishes

This is it. Tonight's the night where either England stays or goes. Sames goes to Holland.

Of course I would hope to see the next knock-out match between England and Holland which means England beats Ecuador tonight and Holland beats Portugal. Gosh..that's a tough one. Portugal's quite strong. And England is still under-performing. I hope they don't lose to Ecuador. Then I would have no one to support anymore. World Cup 2006 would have lost its meaning.

If both my favourite teams win, it's gonna be a great match the next time round.

World Cup 2006

WORLD CUP HAS STARTED!

OLE OLE OLE!!

My support goes to England, Spain and Holland.

Grease : The Musical

Grease was held at the KL Convention Centre. We bought the RM90 category which was the cheapest one and it's quite alright. We took our seats in the hall and waited a while and finally the show started.

It started off with a short contest on stage for anyone who wants to go up and get jiggy with it (dance around). The winner of that shake-ur-bon-bon session got a Grease T-shirt...so much for all the dancing. I enjoyed the show, though the second part of the show was much more exciting. The best vocal part was for the song Beauty School Dropout which is done by a female singer this time, unlike in the movie which was a male singer. That part was really good. There were some funny moments too especially at the drive-in movie scene. The downside was that the sound system in the hall was less than satisfactory. There was too much echo which made it hard to listen to the dialogue in the show and there was A LOT of talking parts whereby the unsatisfactory sound system really was a spoiler. With the complaints aside, it was truly a great show put up by the Grease cast. Good work to them, they deserve a standing ovation. Too bad nobody shouted for an encore...and I was too shy, as expected, to chant that out because everyone would be staring at me if I get no response or nobody joins in to chant.

My KL Trip

Day 1 @ 7:30pm
After an enjoyable 4.5 hours ride in the bus, half of it spent watching Fong Sai Yuk (which was really damn funny), we finally reached our destination : KL. We were taken to Chili's for a sumptuous, mouth-watering, taste-bud satisfying dinner. Aahh...the mash potatoes make me crave for more.
Day 2 @ 11:00am
We took a cab to Midvalley and the first thing I wanted was Burger King! Well, what can I say right? We poor little Penangites don't get the opportunity to savour this ultimate fast food chain back in Penang...so we saved all our energy for this chance in KL. Onion rings~! Love them love them love them! Anyway I had this French Chicken burger and it was delicious. After that, off to some window-shopping and we took the kommuter to KL Sentral, from there to took an LRT to KLCC. More window-shopping and frequent feet-nursing on any available seats we could find. Later on, we went to satisfy my desire for Dunkin Donuts!

Day 2 @ 8:30pm

We headed off to the convention centre for the main purpose of my trip - Grease:The Musical. I enjoyed it...I just love musicals. Expensive but worth it. It was a good show by the Grease casts.

Day 3 @ 11:00am

We went off to Low Yat Plaza via cab and spent a few minutes there while waiting for Ding's brother-in-law to meet us and take us for "drunken-chicken noodle" brunch. After that, all of us took a walk around at Metrojaya and then out to Sungei Wang. When all that was conquered, we headed off to Lot 10 and finished it in 15 minutes. So, we had to make a last minute decision to change directions and we decided to go to 1-Utama. We took the monorail to KL Sentral and from there, an LRT to Kelana Jaya. Upon reaching that station, we took a cab to 1-Utama (new wing). OMG. It is huge...Thank God we decided to go there. We spent the entire afternoon exploring that place and finally found Subway which was our destination for dinner afterwards. Next stop was Dunkin' Donuts again..of course. That was our last day at KL, I must get some donuts coz Penang doesn't have Dunkin. How pathetic right? Shopping haven island, tourist attraction destination -> Penang...and it has pretty much nothing but A&W, Mcd, Pizza and KFC. I didn't realise locating the Dunkin Donut store was such a tiring tasks. It was a really long walk. After that, we attempted to get directions from the guard on where is the nearest taxi stand...to no avail. No doubt, the guard was helpful and long-winded but we just couldn't understand a single word he said. His accent was so heavy that Oval sounded like Awal. Finally, we managed to escape from his never-ending speech on directions and found the taxi stand. I would say the taxi ride wasn't so great, first of all, was the taxi drivers attempt to get extra money for the fact that apparently the road would be jammed. So, we relented and said ok..fine. So off we went. The road wasn't jammed..the driver was full of crap but anyway, we paid him the extra RM2 (with very much unwillingness) plus the meter charges. One thing about the taxi system in KL is that...the drivers tend to round UP the values instead of asking for the exact amount unlike in Singapore where the drivers are much more disciplined and with less of those greediness in their manner. Over here, RM 14.80 got rounded up to RM15.00. We've met 2 out of 3 taxi drivers during our short trip in KL who rounded up the amounts. Ding refused to pay 15 which the driver pretentiously proclaimed that was the fare. It's either the drivers in Malaysia have lack of mathematical capabilities or simply greedy. There is no OR actually, they are just simply ignorant and greedy. Anyway, he finally changed back the 20 cents for us. If Malaysia wants to be world-class...try starting from solving the problem over here.
Day 4 @ 8:30am
Boarded the bus and headed off home!

If you want to see some photos of the trip, visit my photo album site. You can find the link on the side menu or otherwise, here's the link:

http://mellim.myphotoalbum.com

Books, Books, Books!

Visit my book blog if you love to read and love to share some recommendations with me. It's specially set aside for my thoughts on the books I've read and I would appreciate your thoughts too if you've read it. Here's the link, you can find it in my sidebar link library too. Have a nice day! Cheers~!

http://mellim-bookcollection.blogspot.com

Magical World

We went to watch Disney on Ice. It was pretty fun and I totally enjoyed it. The dance, the skating...beautiful. There was Mickey and his better half, Donald Duck, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White (but no dwarfs), Aladdin and Jasmine, the genie, The Incredibles clan, Nemo and the shark(the shark was so cute when it came out) and many more. Fantastic figure skating and accompanied by those great Disney songs. I loved it.

Sushi King drama : The sequel

It was Thursday evening. Ding, Peen and I headed down to Sushi King to take advantage of the last day of the RM2 promotion. Ding reached there first and waited in line while we were on the way..that's really sweet of him too (I have to give him credit for that. For standing in the humid, hot condition). When I got there, a big crowd was already starting to form at the entrance (not to mention the bigger crowd already in there eating). Anyway, we waited a bit more and finally got our seats. Haha..it was perfect...finally I will be able to fulfil my desire of having that tempura prawn sushi which some uncle hijacked way back in last year's promotion. This year..it's all about revenge. The Sushi King fella finally...finally (after much 'tarik-harga')...made that dish. It's not like it's so damn delicious or something but during normal times we wouldn't eat it coz it's like one of the more expensive...correction..most expensive ones on the belt. Didn't manage to snap a photo of it coz we were all too busy chomping it down. Anyway, I did manage 2 photos. This first one, we didn't eat it coz it's not part of the promotion and coz we just don't eat that. But I've got to post this up coz it reminds us so much of Lynn. And if Lynn is reading this, hey..how are you in US? Quick get back here and we can go have dinner again and you can have your..green beans thingy. GRIN. Pls don't kill me..

And this next picture is salmon roe sushi? Something like that. One of Peen's favourite. Ding and I tried one of the round reddish ball thingy on the rice and decided that we'll just forego it for our own reasons :P

Cheers~! Here's one for the memories.

Sushi King drama

My colleagues and I went to Sushi King for lunch..11 of us! It was the RM2 promotion thingy. That place was packed like hell. Ate as much as we could...I have to blur out my friend's image there coz if she ever finds out I posted this up with her face in it..I don't know what she'll do to me. :)