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. :)

The song that makes me cry

Ever had that one song that really touches your heart? rips at your veins? There's one song that always makes me feel like I want to cry when I listen to it.

Vitamin C - Graduation (Friends Forever)

Everytime I listen to this, I'll think of the times I had when I was in school...walking along the corridors of MGS and talking crap with my friends in class which is my best friend ever, Soon Yee and Sher Mein, Yee Leng, Michelle...Don't get me wrong, I don't like school, I don't like the homework, I don't like the heat and I sure don't like to run 12 rounds around the school field and panting like a dog just for the sake of passing PE. That was horrifying, and Lynn can actually run the complete cycle without breaking sweat. FANTASTIC! But I sure do miss the company of my friends. You know what else this song makes me think of, COLLEGE. Aahhh..those were great times too. I really miss it. We had a lot of fun, me, Peen, Lynn and Yuen San. Just hanging out, discussing guys, girls, music, movies and lunch dates. *soft sigh*

A new resolution

Something suddenly dawned upon me a couple of days back. I realised I tend to mutter the F word a lot..to myself anyway. Mostly I type it out when I'm chatting online. I don't say it out loud because I still want to portray my 'nice girl' image to everyone although I don't get it why no one ever believes that I'm innocent and unpolluted! *sigh*

So the F word in this context is actually the famous 4 letter F word which I won't state here coz' ...I'm a nice girl. Sometimes.

So, now onwards, everytime I think of saying the F word, I'm gonna replace it with "Shit" instead, if I get a dollar everytime I say that, I'll be filthy rich. Once I've improved to that level, I'm gonna replace all my Shits with something more subtle..like "Damn", "Oh Crap" or... "Holy Crap". FINALLY...when I reach the level of total purity..I'm just gonna say "SWEEET" for everytime that I have the urge to utter the F word, or the Shits, or Bitch..whatever. Let's see how long I can keep this 'holy crap' image up.

Formula 1 Grand Prix

GO RENAULT!! Fernando Alonso claimed top spot in Bahrain and fought back from 7th starting position to 2nd spot behind fellow teammate Giancarlo Fisichella in Sepang. It's gettin' hot in here...

I love the colours. As you can see, I've even tried changing my background colours to match it.

Great Rendition of Old Songs

Here are some covers and live performances of other singers doing their version of original singer's songs which I think are really worth listening to:

• Jordis Unga in Rockstar INXS did a very touching rendition of John Lennon's Imagine, live on stage during Rockstar INXS show. So good I can't get that song out of my head.
• The Corrs did a cover of Linda Ronstadt's Heart Like A Wheel. It sounded so smooth, relaxing and heartfelt. Great version! I loved it!
• There are a couple of versions of Extreme's More Than Words re-done by Westlife, BBMak and more recently, Frankie J (urgh..). I think BBMak did the best rendition of the original and the backround sounds were just..perfect.
• Carrie Underwood sang Could've Been on last season's American Idol and she did the song proud. That rendition made me support her, along with her other performances of Air Supply's Making Love Out Of Nothing At All, Guy Sebastian's Angels Brought Me Here, her duet with Bo Bice on the old song Up Where We Belong, Roy Orbison's Crying, Alone originally by Heart.. and yada yada yada..whoopee~!!
• I SO totally love Take That's version of Bee Gee's original song, How Deep Is Your Love?. WOW!
• Chris Daughtry of this season's American Idol sang a bit of the song Emotions during Hollywood week (I think it was Bee Gee's song?, also re-done by Destiny's Child). *drool* He is hot, he rocked the song and it was good~!
• I really like Human Nature's cover of Eternal Flame which was originally done by The Bangles. Ever heard that? It's a ballad, love it love it love it!
• Gareth Gates doing Unchained Melody. This fella can really sing.
• Now this is the show-stopper! Cartman's rendition of the Christmas song, Oh Holy Night in one of the Southpark shows. MUAHAHAHA! *GRIN* Don't be surprised but I listened to it over and over again, cute.

What other covers or live renditions of people singing other people's song that you fell in love with? *Note* William Hung and his She Bangs shenanigan is not allowed.

Creepy Cool

Vampires and werewolves. Who can resist? Remember Van Helsing...gosh, he makes one hell of a super sexy werewolf. And who can forget Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in Interview With The Vampire *drool*. I didn't finish watching that movie then coz I was stuck alone in a hotel room in Singapore in the middle of the night with that movie on. Hahaha..I was spooked. Now it's Underworld 2. I've not watched part 1 before but anyway, who wants to when part 2 is so damn good! Although the leader of the vampires (what's his name again..Marcus?) looked like that thing from Jeepers Creepers when he gets pissed off (I quote Ding on that). But Selene played by Kate is SO cool/stylish/pretty. I wish my eyes could turn blue when I lose my temper. That hybrid guy is SIZZLING too~! *GRIN*

Sometimes, vampires are portrayed to be such cool creatures in these movies that you'd wonder how it would be like to be in their shoes for one day. Just being forever young, strong, can fly, can jump higher than a monkey...with exception to the blood sucking part. My point is, Underworld 2 is one heck of a good movie...I can't remember even looking at my watch because I was hooked from the start.

What's up?

Familiar sight??

What's your take on the future of Komtar? It used to be such a pride to Penangites. Maybe it still is..I don't know, maybe it's already forgotten or it's just there but nobody really notices the significance anymore.

Now it's just standing there amidst the hustle and bustle of the town, bathed in sunlight, looking gloomy and old, even the windows don't reflect light when the sun shines on it. Could it be that the glass is coated with thick layers of dirt and dust of the years gone by?
What's the feeling that people get when they think of Komtar? I know for sure when I think of it, gloomy?, eerie?, dirty?, smelly, unsafe, dark, old and unmaintained, every corner is lurking with danger, a lot of scary people hanging around..bla bla bla ??? and the list goes on.
At the bottom of it you will find a very dark and dirty looking bus station. Very badly lit, old car park. Hopefully someone comes up with a bright idea before it becomes nothing but a name and a past tense. (not that it isn't already a past tense) :P

It's nothing but my own opinion.

Great classic rock love song

This is an old song by Meatloaf. One of his many great hits.

MEATLOAF - I'D LIE FOR YOU

I'd never tell you one lie

I'd never let you down

I'd never leave, I'd be the one who'd always be around

Baby give me a chance

I'd pull the sun down from the sky to light your darkest night

I'd never let one drop of rain fall down into your life

Put your heart in my hands

Baby believe me, I could never do you wrong

And I would never paint your world blue

And if sometimes it seems I must lost my mind

I might be crazy, but I'm crazy about you.

This is where the song hits its climax. I love the chorus so much!

I'd lie for you and that's the truth

Do anything you asked me to

I'd even sell my soul for you

I'd do it all for you

If you'd just believe in me

Just take a look in my eyes, You'd see a love that's blind

Just take a hold of my hand, I'll take you to paradise

Ain't a star that's too far

Every wish will be a wish, That I will make come true

And if you want the moon, I swear I'l bring it down to you

Let me into your heart

Believe me baby

Got your name carved on my soul

cause you're the only one that I'll give it too

Go let 'em say that I'm fool to act this way

cause if I'm crazy, I'm just crazy about you

Damn those striped tops!

And especially those horizontal ones! I just love blouses/tops with stripes but no matter how much I like it, and how damn cool I think they look sometimes, it's hard not to acknowledge the fact that stripes are so easily recognisable from a mile away. We always face the danger of another unknowing person wearing the exact same clothing to the exact same place I'm going. Of course it can happen with any clothing but no doubt, stripes are very easy to spot when it's identical! Many times I've seen people wear striped tops which I actually have one also or someone else I know has one. So easy to recognise.

Last night I dug out my sleeveless top with a very nice shade of green and white stripes and I thought how unlucky would I be right? The chances of someone wearing the same thing as I would to where I was going for dinner would be not so probable. I WAS WRONG! Damn freaking wrong. I mean the last time I wore this was a few months back to my colleague's housewarming party because I guessed I won't find another person in the same one as nobody wore it to the office. I guess I was right then. Anyway I had my dinner and I went to Giant to get some stuff and I saw a woman staring stonily at me and I thought "What the hell is wrong with this bitch?!" I just walked past but somehow at the corner of my eye, I noticed her daughter wearing the very same top! Oh crap...but it's not like I committed a crime. That woman had better shut her eyes before I poke them out and squish them under my brand new Vincci shoes. Stripes = Danger. The next time I think of wearing striped tops, I will think again...and again...and I should just bury that at the bottom of my closet.

A little step, goes a long way..

Charity starts at home. One should always..always learn how to give back a little to others what you have earned. There are people out there who are so much less fortunate than us (we are sitting here, in the comfort of our own home, using our brand new gadgets, notebooks, powerful personal computers, earning big bucks from your high-end jobs and reading this). This is by no means a post to promote anything or anybody, not even myself. But today is a day of giving. Chinese New Year is just around the corner, so me and Ding went off shopping to buy some daily stuff such as adult diapers, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, toilet paper, coffee, milk and etc which are useful for people in the old folks' home. It may not be much but something is always better than nothing. Look at the amount of stuff..wow, 2 trolleys ain't enough and we had to go 2 rounds. Imagine the face on the cashier when he saw 2 trolleys full to the brim..I suppose he must be thinking ("Oh man, why'd they have to pick my lane") haha..The people in old folks' home (especially the poorer homes) need assistance, we need to contribute a little and a little bit always goes a long way. If everyone puts in a little to give to the poor and needy, it would amount to a lot. This is not for the sake of recognition, fame or whatever. We don't need that kind of shit. What's important is making these people especially people in the old folks' home where they are old and weak, their families are far away, unable or unwilling to care for them everyday, to feel a little comfort and to help them in whatever ways we are able to in getting through the rest of their lives by having the basic necessities. Last but not least, THANK YOU to those close to us who have willingly contributed their part in helping us help others. You guys are really good and may god bless you!

This is the receipt of the items we bought. WOW! Look at that...I've decided to crop out Ding's photo coz' he would totally 'kill' me if I posted that in. But I'm just so amazed at this long, long piece of paper, although I think last year's was much longer. Haha!

Phases of green life

If you still remember, I posted on my blog a few months ago on this plant my colleague gave me. Here are some updates..though I'm not too proud of it. The pictures (from left to right) shows the phases it has gone through for the past 3 months. As you can see the first picture shows a beautiful and healthy looking plant with 2 leaves. Closely followed by one of the leaf turning yellow, but nevertheless, out with the old, in with the new. The third picture shows the plant (sans the yellow dying leaf, or should I say cut-off, dead and gone) but take not at the bottom of the cup is a new life. A tiny new leaf growing. :) Now the final picture is the latest, the new leaf is still growing strong but I have replaced the water with some green-plant-jelly thing...or whatever you call it. How long do you think this fella is gonna last?

Christmas!! Trees and all its glory..

I'm back from a dark journey...oh glory glory. My exam for Corporate Finance is finally over and I have a a couple days to rest and relax a little (I hope so anyway) before the next brand new subject starts. I'm dedicating this post to some Christmas trees that I managed to capture with the convenience of a camera phone (*wink*).

This one above from left to right, the big and gorgeous Christmas tree in Shangri-la Hotel, on the right is a very small but cute, blue-lighted table top mini tree.

Above are 2 photos of 1 Christmas tree...one very tall Christmas tree in Gurney Plaza and due to my lack of skills in the photography department (as well as limited photo features on my phone), I have to take the top half of the tree and bottom-half in 2 sessions.

Ok, this a fantastically elegant, classy looking Christmas tree, beautifully decorated..excellent. I give it 2 thumbs up for all the hard-work put in as I stood watching a lady put up ribbons and decorations on this tree. Done with so much patience and dedication...I'm amazed. And hey, it also comes with a little brick house on the side with teddy bears and stuff. This photo is taken at a very unexpected place to find such a lovely sight, at a hospital...of all places, this hospital has got one of the most beautiful Christmas trees I've seen in year 2005 (in my humble opinion).

Christmas Eve...Year 2005, on cool, breezy, rainy night. Memories are meant to be cherished, well at least the memories of good food should be. Ding and I had dinner at Sobayoshi (I hope I got that name right, I'm so forgetful these days..) The food was great, worth every damn dollar. The taste was just right, not too sweet, not too salty. Price was reasonable too.

Here's to the Christmas that just passed, all the beautiful decorations have been removed and replaced with the also- beaufitul-in-its-own-way, pink and red for Chinese New Year. Get ready, here comes the Year of the DOG~!!