Wow, I can’t believe that there’s only 1 day left in 2009. We’re fast moving into the last year of the decade since millennium. We’ve got 10 more years to achieve Vision 2020 but seems like the primary school murals I had painted of flying cars and a city well-connected by LRT are still distant fantasies. Oh well, we’ve got 10 more years right? To be honest, instead of a developed country I actually look forward to a more developed society. I hope gay people could get marry and have the same civil rights as straight people. I hope Malaysians will no longer be differentiated by the Melayu, Cina, India & Dan Lain Lain check boxes. I hope foreigners with specialised skills can attain permanent residencies much easier because frankly, we need the manpower. I hope cars can be cheaper and much more affordable so that children with poor parents do not have to be ferried around on vulnerable two wheelers. I hope that facilities for the disabled be made mandatory for all public transportation and buildings. Yeah, I hope for a lot of things, but right now I’ll be very happy if pets can be allowed to accompany their owners in restaurants.

2009 is a special year for me. Namely it’s a year where I did a lot of growing up. Sort of giving myself a break from being a brat, getting my shit together and do a lot of stuff I didn’t think I could ever do. Like 2008, I’m going to summarise my past year by months :)

January

This is the month where I got Charlie. Well, he’s still alive so I guess me and the boyfriend are doing a decent job. He is the light of my life and I can’t bear not having him in my life. Sure, I talk about selling him off and dumping him whenever the goings get tough but unless fate decides to play a cruel joke on me, I think Charlie is here to stay :)

# – Charlie & Mummy

February

February was an exciting month. I was easing comfortably into my job with Subaru and with that, came some perks. One of it was being driven by the best rally driver in the region, Cody Crocker. The thrill and excitement I experienced were beyond words. It’s roller coaster X 500 and more…

# – Prepping up for a session with Cody Crocker.

March

As I grew older, I’m starting to appreciate more & more the wonders of Malaysia. I find myself amazed by places that I never knew existed. It’s unfortunate that they are not promoted enough by the goverment but I hope blogs will be able to give some limelight to these places. I feel lucky that I know friends who are willing to explore and share with us these places. I visited one of these in March and it’s a charcoal factory in Kuala Sepetang.

# – Workers from charcoal factory taking a break.

April

This is the month where I had one of my dreams materialised – seeing Oasis live! We drove all the way to Singapore to catch a glimpse of them and the journey was marred by our severe lack of time keeping hehe. That said, we got there on time, got ourselves some good positions and had the best time of our lives! I am damn glad that I saw them because as predicted, Oasis split up not long after that.

# – Oasis Live in Singapore!

Okay, so nothing is perfect I guess. This was also the month where I got into a car accident after quite a number of years. The infuriating thing was it’s such a silly, silly, silly accident and I lost my NCB over it. Oh well, that’s life.

# – Dented doors :(

May

Well, I suppose it was a pretty quiet month, unless you count finding THE ONE. By the one, I mean my hair salon. I’m a loyal patron of Hair Kunst, because basically, they can do no wrong :) I need to go more often though to fix my banshee mane..

# – I’ve never seen my hair that way before, only at Hair Kunst.

June

June was an even more depressing month. It’s the month that Michael Jackson passed away. I seriously think the world changed because of that :(

Also, I was pretty swamped with work so I have blogged significantly lesser.

July

This was my favourite month cause it’s my month of birth and also I got to travel a little bit. Thanks to Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), I got to go on an all-expenses paid trip to Northern Thailand. I’ve never been to that side of Thailand and it was amazing. I went to the King’s Mother’s highland retreat (breathtaking!), Golden Triangle (interesting!) and many other interesting places.

# – At Wat Phra That Lampang Luang.

As for my birthday…I received flowers delivered to the office, a Nokia N97 from the love and lots of love from the love. What more can I ask for? :)

# – Birthday flowers.

August

Wow this is a tough month to write. Cause I think I was still really bogged down by work and had no inspiration to blog. Most of this month’s posts are made up of emo ranting -_-

I suppose the only good thing that happened was the full moon of my latest cousin, Qian Jie :) She was actually born just one day after my birthday so I imagine she would grow up just like me – pretty. Hehehehhe.

# – Qian Jie’s 30th day on earth.

September

Hot, hot, hot month! I achieved another of my dreams – to eat the habanero! It was the hottest pepper in year 1996, according to my Guinness Book of Records and I had been fascinated ever since. Thanks to Larry from Frontera, I was able to eat it…well, half of it anyway. I shared it with Ah Horng and it got pretty interesting after that. Lots of mexican food + lots of alcohol + 1/2 habanero = Merlion.

# – The unassuming Habanero.

Our experience captured on video :P

October

Hmm, this was quite an interesting month. I suppose things do pick up as the year begins to wrap. First of all, I met the Black Eyed Peas! It was quite surreal :)

# – With the BEP y’all!

Then I went to the Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards. I was also handling the media relations for this event so it was work + play. It’s like the Oscars for bloggers and who knows, maybe one day I’ll get to be nominated ;)

# – At the Nuffnang Blog Awards with ST.

And finally, I also ate natto, one of the most disgusting foods on earth apparently. I didn’t even flinch, probably because I’m just a pervert like that.

# – Natto – commonly described as snot-like.

November

So this is the month where I could officially call myself an adult with commitments. Got ourselves into lifetime of debts but we do it with a smile aight :)

We got a house and I finally changed my car. I can’t wait to start my life in this house and be warned next year’s blog posts will be mainly about house decorating and boring stuff like that hehe. As for the car, I shall bring out the Ah Beng next year heh.

# – The living room now.

# – Giving the new ride a scrub down.

December

The last month of year 2009. Wow. Time does pass really fast eh? This is a good month for me too. Experiences are definitely more valuable than material things and I’m so glad this month I had a couple that I’ll remember forever.

Firstly, it’s the BWM EfficientDynamics trip to Pulau Banding. Simply, simply gorgeous trip. And police escort, hello?

# – Police escort at TTDI.

# – Behind the wheels of a beemer.

Then it was the 6th annual Xmas party at KY’s. The ultimate sign that the end of the year is near. But we partied on like rock stars and it was awesome!

# – Even Charlie had fun!

Oh and I did prawn fishing which was mad fun but I haven’t gotten around to blog about it yet :)

Well, I’m supposed to end this already but I just had another fantastic experience to add on to December and that’s being driven in one of my best friends, M’s Porsche 911 Turbo. It was F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C

# – Nine eleven turbo.

This year is the year where I’ve made really good friends too and I’m most happy with the creation of the #porkgang – consist of ST, KY, Kerol, Suanie, God, Horng,Ringo and Ruby. Never had I been in a group so loves to eat and so fun and comfortable to be around. We hope we all stick around for a long, long time!

So that’s my 2009 condensed into a single post.

I hope yours is good because I think mine was. Have a happy new year 2010 and I wish you all great health and happiness for next year :)

Mark your calendar now because on 7th January 2010, the first of all awesome concerts for the year will be happening in Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach. Get ready for Ne-Yo in KL! He’s currently on his Year of the Gentlemen Tour and KL is lucky to be one of the cities he’s dropping by!

Better news for Celcom users, if you’re on Xpax – you could get the RM140 ticket at just RM90!! All you need to do is reload a minimum of RM50, type & send REGNEYO to 28881.

As for U.O.X. and S.O.X. users, you’d get not one, but TWO tickets worth RM158 if you reload just a minimum of RM30, then type and send REGFREETIX to 28881. Pretty great deal, eh?

So are you ready to get Closer to Ne-Yo?

I can’t believe I’ve been to the same party for 6 years straight. All thanks to the man here:

#1 – KY

The annual party is awesome as always. The cops turned up just as expected, not once but twice in one night. Puke-count is zero though, now that is an achievement. I think most people have simply grown a little mature and prefer to be awake for some conversations.

Heck, we’ve even got a full-fledged Xmas dinner this year, reserved exclusively for the the inner circle a.k.a #porkgang and was scheduled to take place 2 hours before the party. However, since I the turkey collector was stuck in the most crazy massive wtflux jam the dinner was forced to start at a much later time (ie: when the party started).

#2 – Xmas traffic, ho ho ho.

God ordered the ever welcomed roast pork and I was in charge of the vegetables (yawn).

#3 – Full spread Xmas dinner.

It was also Kerol‘s birthday, so here’s a shoutout :)

#4 – Happy Birthday Sexy Sotong!

Well, to be honest, dinner was generally slightly cold and coagulated but it was still fun digging in with the #porkgang. It’s the company that matters, aight I <3 you allllll

FML, uhh..i’m heading off now. will resume tonight!

By the time we finished dinner, there was already a decent amount of people at the party.

#5 – Chilling out.

At this point we were inhaling helium for fun.

After that it was gift exchange time. The rules are simple:

* the person who drew #1 picks a gift from the pile (giver’s names are written on the gifts)
* #2 onwards gets to hijack one of the opened gifts, or pick from the pile
* if your gift got hijacked, you get to hijack another one, and so on.

This year, the most attractive gifts were the bakua, World of War Craft games and a Banana Republic drink mixer.

As you can see, these gifts passed through a number of people…

#6 – Bakua – Me, Robb and ST.

#7 – WoW games – Haze, Horng, God & Me.

#8 – Mixer – Tim, Yee Hou, Suet, Robb, ST, KY, Rebecca & Rachel.

The most awesomesauce gift though were these bags of asam laksa tarpao-ed alllll the way from Penang by Yee Hou.

#9 – Though Haze was not so thrilled. Hahahha.

#10 – Suan got something that might be useful for her OBC??

#11 – With the superheroes – green gay santa and green cape crusader.

All in all, it was a fantastic night! Thanks Heineken, Nuffnang and The Balloon Images for the booze, the food and the helium!

#12 – Merry Xmas 2009!

Merry Xmas 2009!!!

From: The Family.

p/s: picture from KY.

After Mom nagged me for the umpteenth time, I decided to go settle my problem that was MyKad. The boyfriend was to accompany me for the trip to the underbelly of the civil service. Initially, I wanted him to wake up at 6.30am but all I got was a “curt” response, so to speak. So after lazing in the bed for half the day, at 2pm yesterday, I called up the HQ of National Registration Department to find out if there were any queue number left. She answered in the positive. We made lunch, ate them and prepped up. Finally, around 2.30pm we made our way to Putrajaya.

We reached Putrajaya around 3pm.

The almost deserted city of Putrajaya.

The signages weren’t very well placed in Malaysia’s centre of administration and we got a bit lost for a while trying to locate the office. Bf (being a man and all) requested that I ask for directions from a shaddy looking man driving a school van. I was a bit hesitant, but I did anyway and discovered that the dude gave the clearest directions. Never judge a book by its cover!

We found JPN!

The MyKad department is at the 2nd floor. I knew of the place from a kind member of staff who saw me wandering aimlessly on 1st floor. I didn’t get lost because I didn’t understand Bahasa Malaysia, but the language used were so bombastic that I had no freakin’ idea what they’re saying.

Only 2 people ahead of me. W00t!

I was relieved to find that the office was not very packed. I’m guessing it’s because it was an odd time and a weekday.

Getting my thumb print. No more dirty ink!

It was my turn before I knew it. She typed in my IC number and double confirmed with me every data on my profile. I gave her my driving license and told her that I wanted to store it on MyKad. Instead of taking my driving license, she showed me another window which detailed the information on my driving license. Next she showed me the details of my passport. Such evidence of data integration suddenly got me really proud of my country.

Oh, and I had to pay RM10 as a penalty for missing the deadline last year. No complaints there cause I thought it was RM30. I indicated where I want my MyKad to be collected and proceeded to have my picture taken. I was glad that they had a mirror installed on the camera so I could watch how I looked like. No more ugly IC picture days I am to call them after a month to see if the card will be ready for collection. And that was all, only about 15 minutes of my life spent in a government office.

With more time to kill, we decided to do some sightseeing in Putrajaya. I had a field time playing the homegirl role.

I am the KL Girl.

Malaysia Sure Boleh!

Negaraku!

Wow the end of 2009 is coming!!! And that means I’ll be turning 26. That’s almost 30. Seriously, it’s a very, very scary revelation. Twenty fucking six but why do I still feel like 21? I don’t feel at all accomplished, is this even normal?

Anyway, think I’m falling sick. I’m feeling really woozy, my throat is tight but probably cause it’s 3.28am now and I can’t go to bed because the man is still at his computer. Yeah, yeah I’m old enough to tuck myself in but it’s our thing, going to bed together.

Watched Sherlock Holmes today. Wow, a Guy Ritchie’s film with dialogue I can actually comprehend. No Irish or Welsh accents that I strain to understand. It’s all good. And I’m going to watch it again at GSC because TGV seats sucked. So tiny! Okay, so the film was funny but not THAT funny people were laughing so much in the cinema today. For instance, Sherlock said “Watson” and people laughed? WTF ok. Most time they laughed so long that the actual jokes were drowned out. That said, Robert Downey Jr’s potrayal of Sherlock Holmes is totally out of my expectation. Granted all I’ve ever known of Sherlock is through some B-grade TV shows and the penguin paperbacks. I can totally see Michael Caine as Sherlock Holmes but Robert Downey Jr? He made Sherlock sexy and I love it. As for Jude Law, ok he’s a good actor but all I could think of was his naughty penile activities with 5789 poons after shooting wrapped. And wtf is with Rachel McAdam’s makeup? She looked like a racoon!

Okay this was supposed to be a filler but I think it’s a bit too long to be called one. The man is in bed waiting already I better go.

Bai.

Eating at the same place every day at lunch time can be very depressing. To rub salt to injury, the food is hardly healthy too – oily and full of artificial flavourings. I’ve always thought of bringing my own food to work for several reasons:

1. I’ll have full control of my diet.
2. It’s environmentally friendly!

How is it environmentally friendly to bring your own food to work?

Well first of all, you save a lot of poor trees. You know those nasi lemak wrapped in brown papers? Well, the brown papers may be biodegradable but can you imagine how many trees have been killed for the purpose of wrapping your arteries clogging nasi lemak?

Not to mention the number of baby seals and little animals that you would save by just getting your takeaways packed in your own containers instead of the polystyrene boxes. Disposable plastic and polystyrene takes literally forever to break down and one day, we would have run out of places to dispose them if we continue to use them at this rate. Watched Wall-E, anyone?

Anyway, I’ve simply had enough of the nasty food around my office so I did some research and found the perfect container system for my home-brought food.

Here are reasons why this system is awesome:

A. It’s microwavable.

Some containers claim that they are microwavable but they never tell you that it releases poisonous particles into your food while the microwave happily blasts away. Not with this system though, all its containers either met or have surpassed every Federal Government safety standards in every country they’re sold in.

In fact the containers have lids specially designed to microwave food without them going soggy and nasty like the typical microwaved food!

#1 – Lid with a hole to allow vapour to escape.

#2 – Just press the middle of the white silicon to open it.

#3 – Tadaa…ready for some blasting in the microwave.

B. Air-tight = Spill proof.

The containers close air-tight! Besides guaranteeing freshness, it means that this system is virtually spill-proof. This is great for bringing soup or food with gravy! This is VERY important to me because I’ve been in a situation where two whole bottles of cincaluk escaped into my leather backpack. IT WAS NOT PRETTY.

#4 – Up.

#5 – Down. Look ma! No Spill!

C. Ample space.

The space in the containers was neither too big nor too small. It’s also intelligently segregated too so that you could put different dishes and still be able to taste the difference at the end of the day. Unless rojak is your staple, maybe this is not the system for you.

#6 – Perfect space for perfect portion.

#7 – A perfect bowl of Marmite soup. I can even make it straight in the bowl. Plastic won’t be deformed by hot water, hehe.

D. Ergonomically designed.

Each and every container is designed for easy usage. For instance the containers for soup and drinks come with cleverly designed handles and moulded in a way that when you drink from them, the liquid won’t be easily spilled.

Also, the lids are so easy to remove. They close air-tight but when you need to remove them, you have the extended plastic as a leverage to pop it off.

Even the fork and spoons are designed to save space!

# 8 – Easy to open.

#9 – Easy to drink straight from the Crystal Wave Soup Mug.

#10 – And to eat from the Reheatable Divided Lunch Box.

#11 – Fork & spoons….

#12 – that can stick together!

E. Hot and cold drinks on demand.

The Commuter Mug for hot and cold drinks is not unlike a thermos flask but it’s much lightweight and pretty :)

#13 – A lightweight container for hot or cold beverages.

F. Fashion friendly!

I don’t have to lug an ugly plastic bag with a couple of plastic containers around anymore. The carrier bag that comes with the container system is modern, practical and doesn’t clash with my clothes!

#14 – Difficult to take around.

#15 – Modern & practical bag to stick all the containers in :)

#16 – Doesn’t really look out of place with my work clothes!

So after reading through all these, I’m pretty sure you’re wondering what is the name of this container system? Well, it’s none other than the most famous and credible manufacturer of household storage systems – Tupperware! The last time I used Tupperware was in primary school. My mom’s a big fan and she always packed my lunch in those nifty little containers for me to bring to school.

So, I’m really happy to have rediscovered this brand :) There are many more containers that I haven’t mentioned, such as the eco Tupperware bottle. The eco Tupperware bottle is egnomically designed and can be reused over and over again to carry your drinks. So there, if you want to win an Tupperware containers, you could start with a pledge to save Mother Nature at this website.

#17 – eco Tupperware.

There are various Tupperware prizes to be given away daily to lucky pledgers so start saving the environment now! :)