A Random Post

Well, it is not like many people will noticed. But horrors!, we have a 2 whole day without a post from me.

Joe Wong and a few others may. You guys are keeping me alive.

Old dogs shouldn't be taught new tricks. But here I am into a new project and learning new things. It is so unlike me. There you have it, I have been rather busy the last few days.

Some random news?

Pauline Wong's Chill Out Fridays program in 3rd Mile Square is still on and when I was in Oldtown White Coffee there earlier, I saw a band rehearsing. Looked good.

Pauline Wong is on facebook and it was a surprise to know. I tried to hook her up with a few peers like Malani Cumurasamy, Jullie Chin, Marjorie and others.

If you remember Jackie Soong Mei Zin, the Ipoh crazy copier woman. She married a Dutchman and now stays in Holland. She has a lovely young daughter. Good looker.

Steven Wong is now officially retired and therefore is available to start drinking with you from 3pm now.

Malani Cumurasamy has two sons now and did not gain any weight from it. Didn't lose any either.

Peter Chow had a health scare recently but is now in the pink of health.

Yan Yoke Ping said he has not bought his Ferrari yet. I told him it would be too expensive for me to go to his upmarket French restaurant besides Low Yat. Liew Sip Chon told me "Let's go there." I am interpreting his proposal in long to be "Don't worry about the cost Stanley; Let's go there."

Andrew Kong said he did not like the food that much in Chan Sow Lin road 5 fish head restaurant that has moved from road 3.

Chew Tuck Hing is keen to have lunch with Richard Yeow and me in Goon Wah Kuchai Lama. We are awaiting Richard's schedule to have an opening opportunity.

Woo who used to be with United Nations looked exactly like I saw him many years ago. Back then he looked old when he was younger and now he looks younger when he is older.

Larry Poon now wield the impressive N97 device wherever he goes. List price RM2450.00. He said he can get it cheaper for you. Call him?

Terenze Lim's early 20's daughter has got an awesome looking boyfriend. Tall and good looking.

Joe Wong is still chatting up chicks like it is still now in the eighties.

Angela Woon looked stunning last Saturday. Kelvin Chen tried hard to pretend looking nonchalant.

Steven Tan is now with Green Packet and could be involved in trying to cover the country with Wimax.

I do not know what is Patrick Yee doing. But he always look happy and prosperous. I did not realize all along that his wife Ally can be pretty chatty.


Some people think Hayden Panettiere is hot. I do not agree. I think she does not have an interesting face and her legs are too short. You may remember her best as one of the Heroes.

Steven Wong's Retirement - The Party

I have to set the record straight for younger readers. Here party means a group of people, much like the Democratic Action Party or something.

Do not for any moment imagine loud thumping music, swinging hands in the ayer, scantily dressed ladies, dirty minded men, copious flow of liquor, maybe some grass and other uppers.

I mentally calculated the average age of the party and the number was too large to make known here to the world at large.

Steven Wong of course was there. He has to be. He is the reason for the event, being organized by his son and wife. Although many people think that many people in Canon are cowboys, they may not know that Steven was the original cowboy.

Let me elaborate. In 1987, he wanted to upgrade his Mazda to a second hand Mercedes. As a general manager, he was entitled to a loan (interest free, I think). His application was turned down as the then Vice Chairman Mr Kawamura was driving a mere Volvo. Ya, you are right. He went ahead to buy his first Mercedes obtaining his own outside loan and asking Canon to go .... ..

Another incident. You see, when your Japanese boss is unhappy, you can't ask him what's wrong. You have to guess what's the problem and quickly resolve it. I remembered when Mr Ide said to me that if his Tokyo boss were to come to Malaysia and walk into the hotel that he booked. All the Tokyo bigwig has to do is to look around and say that "This place is very funny ne?" With that Mr Ide has to immediately run off and book another hotel.

During a management meeting in 1988, Mr Kawamura was pretty upset over something. Naturally you can tell by looking at his face. Then Steven has the audacity to ask Mr Kawamura in the face "Actually Mr Kawamura, why are you so upset?"

I thought then that Steven did not know how to write in Chinese the word "sei". Steven, come, let me show you, 死.

How can Steven Wong not be my all time hero in Canon?

So who else went to this non-dancing, nosinatall party in Baywatch Dataran Prima. Hope I did not leave anybody out.

Chew Tuck Heng and wife, Steven Tan and Stephanie and kids, Christie Low, Joe Wong, Kelvin and Angela, Andrew and Gladys, Yan Yoke Peng, Terenze and wife and daughter and boyfriend, Goh Kheng Peow and wife, Richard Yeow and wife, Larry Poon, William Augustin, Jeradyne, NS Tan, Woo, Christine Ooi, Liew Sip Chon and wife.







Surely you know which one is Steven Wong. This picture was taken by somebody when the concept store in MidValley was opened.

Yasmin binti Ahmad

I did not know much about her earlier.

Learning more, I can't help but agree wholeheartedly that it is indeed a sad loss to so many people and the country.

From wikepedia:

Yasmin Ahmad (July 1, 1958 - July 25, 2009) was a critically-acclaimed multi-award winning film director, writer and scriptwriter from Malaysia and was also the executive creative director at Leo Burnett Kuala Lumpur. Her television commercials and films are well-known in Malaysia for their humour, heart and love that crosses cross-cultural barriers, in particular her ads for Petronas, the national oil and gas company. Her works have won multiple awards both within Malaysia and internationally.

If you have the time, please visit MalaysiaFinance and watch the commercials again, posted up by Salvatore. Click on this link.

http://malaysiafinance.blogspot.com/2009/07/yasmin-ahmads-national-treasure.html

Have you watched Sepet?

Sepet is a 2004 Malaysian romantic comedy drama film set in Ipoh, Malaysia. Directed by Yasmin Ahmad, it tells a tale of a love that blooms between a Chinese boy and a Malay girl. Sepet is a Malay word which, in this context, refers to the 'slit eyes' of the Chinese.

Steven Wong Retires

Carmen Wong was the best looking person there.

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It all began when I received a text message from Clara Wong. It seemed like the eldest son and wife of Steven Wong wanted to organise a surprise party to celebrate Steven's retirement.

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Of course Steven was the first Division Manager in Canon Division when Canon was a Division in Mulpha Trading Sdn Bhd. Later he was the first General Manager in Canon Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd. He was the one instrumental in taking me into Canon/MTSB in 1974. In case you wonder 1974 was after the 2nd World War.

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In my opinion, if there was a Father of Canon in Malaysia, this dude would be it. Actually Steven is retiring from FotoKem. He left Canon several years ago.

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Anyway the text message read:

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Hi, its clara wong here(steven wong). My son is throwing a party 2 SURPRISE steven on his retirement frm 40 over yrs of hardwk. It wud b grt 2 hv u n ur mrs. Joining us. 25 jul sat 7.30pm at Baywatch Dataran Prima PJ jln pju1/42. Tq.

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This is very touching. If my wife and son were to throw me anything, they may just throw me out of the house.

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By the way, Mrs Clara Wong, you mentioned and I quote "retirement frm 40 over yrs of hardwk".

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I have absolutely no doubt that you knew about Steven Wong getting off to go to work diligently for over 40 years.

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Hard Work? I guess we need to put that to a vote. There were plenty a time when I can see him at work, maybe even pretty worked up. However, there were also quite many occasions that I saw that he was enjoying himself. Others may agree.

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Hard work for over 40 years? Is that what he told you?

Apartheid - A National Policy?

I am a regular visitor to Malaysia Today and regularly read what Raja Petra has to say. His recent article was titled

Hunting for the yellow devils

You can read the whole article here.

What caught my eye was the following paragraph.

These Malays like that Bank Islam chap would argue that even in the US discrimination exists. Sure it does. Discrimination exists everywhere. No country is spared discrimination. The only thing is in some countries it is worse than others. But Malaysia is the only country (now that South Africa has abolished Apartheid) where discrimination is a national policy and is written into the constitution.

More so lately, I have been so disappointed with the affairs happening in Malaysia. The Teoh Beng Hock issue is so upsetting. And this is certainly not helping.

Racial discrimination has been existing here like forever. The hope amongst those discriminated upon is that one day it will cease to exist, as the world moves forward. As people in general become more educated and knowledgeable. As the world becomes flatter.

But what hope have we got if the present ruling party/parties remain in power and discrimination is a national policy and is written into the constitution.

Is it true that Malaysia is the only country?

"Happy Birthday" Amy Teoh

I do not know how old is CanonMalaysian Amy Teoh Chwee Wan, but she would be older by 1 year tomorrow.

I understand that she would be celebrating her birthday with a gang tomorrow having dinner somewhere. I wasn't invited. Sour grapes or not, I will not be available anyway as I will be attending the "Something's Brewing" event.

Amy now with Riomark was from Penang and was voted by me as The Champion Simon Yam Camwhore, beating everybody including Christina Lee.

I did a post earlier on this, http://canonmalaysians.blogspot.com/2009/05/simon-yam-and-canon-camwhores.html

Well, some familiar pictures again?

Something's Brewing

If you are like me who hates teaser advertisements, then this post is not for you. It will probably turn you off.

Sorry!

Yes, something's brewing. And it is gonna happen this Saturday evening. If you are Pearly Chew, Peter Chow, Wong Choon Heng, Patricia Lee, Alicia Hooi, Alfred Chan, etc., then this is not for you. You are too young.

However if you do not know what am I talking about and you are Cheng Sue Yueh, Larry Poon, Jackie Soong, Christie Low, Brenda Kua, Wendy Ng, Victor Chan, Michael Kuan, Linus Foo, Peter Chong, Angela Woon, Larissa, Lim Kok Hin, Changle Lim, Steven Tan, Tee Kien Lai, Jackie Manasee, Andrew Lee, Ralph Tay, Karen Kow, Shereen Phua, Ho Bak Kee, Sheau Ming, Rosalind Tan, Garry Ng, Richard Yeow, Angie Yim, Jeremy Lee, Anne Peng, Law Lie Tiek, Lim How Keat, William Augustin, Jimmy Choong, Peter Chin, Rick Low, Ricky Yip, Edwin Chin, Andrew Kong, Andrew Lai, Esther Law, Kawamura, Goh Kheng Peow, Chew Tuck Heng, Wong May Yin, Simon Wong, Nancy Yong, Mak Siew Choy, Jackie Leow, Amanda Yap, Adrian Chong, Richard Wong, Lawrence Lee, Jimmy Yong, Rosie Goh, Penny Chan, Yan Yoke Ping, Yong Kah Leng, KC Han, Samantha Sim, Takeshi Ide, Mee Lian, Donny Ling, Marjorie Chang, Endo, Francis Kim, Danny Lee, Jullie Chin, Liew Sip Chon, Chua Hock Keat, Thomas Wong, Harry Lee, Jeeneze Lee, Angie Ng, Rocky Loot, Mike Cheong, Ooi Chik Hoe, Shareen Thum, Jack Lim, Patrick Yee, Terenze Lim, Philip Tay, Johnnie Tan, Germaine, ..

.. then, you should write or call me for information.

stanleygxfc@gmail.com or 016-3300 900

And by the way, will somebody please translate the following video into English for me?

Beat It in Taipei

No doubt Michael Jackson will be pleased if he watched this, wherever he may be.

Jeremy Cheong asked me to watch this one earlier today.

This event happened just only a few days ago. When the video ended, I realized I was grinning whilst watching it.

See if it makes you happy too! =D

Malaysia, my country?

A parody of the MACC with regards to Teoh Beng Hock came my way today. It is on YouTube.

It is sufficiently funny.

However, as the national trajedy of Teoh Beng Hock is still so fresh, I've decided not to share it with you. Naturally, you can find it searching YouTube.


It is inconceivable for me that a normal and sane person who is going to be married the next day with the woman carrying his child of 2 months commits suicide by jumping off a building.

If a Royal Commission of Inquiry does not happen and those found guilty not punished, I would be terribly ashamed to call Malaysia my country.

Maggie Q

Switched on the TV yesterday and Astro has Die Hard 4.0 on halfway.

I have seen this movie twice before. But what's the problem with watching it again? If you judge an action movie by the high reluctance to move away from your seat to pee or grab a beer or stretch, then this is an awesome action movie. I give this a 5 star.

And Maggie Q is something else. She does not impress me in her other movies. But on this one, she is so "in charge" "confident" "kick-ass".

With all that and yet sexy.





























Following you have a video of Maggie Q in a fierce kissing scene with Daniel Wu rolling on the beach whilst the waves roll in the nearby sea.

As the clip has been flagged as unsuitable for minors like your children or your younger bros and sis, you may have to sign in or sign up to YouTube.

Just do it!

Michael Kuan?

<anonymous>: Hi Stan any idea where is Michael Kuan now?

This was in my chatbox a couple of days back. If my preference counts to anybody at all, I prefer feedback's/questions come from identified tuan2 dan puan2.

Michael Kuan can now be officially declared a recluse in my books. The last I heard of him was a couple of years ago when Steven Wong mentioned to him about a gathering sort of initiated by me and he asked Steven. "What is this meet up all about" or something to that effect. Steven Wong told me. Michael did not come.

Steven Wong is the other partner in FotoKem. "Just a small share" he is always saying.

In the days of the dinosaurs, Canon was a medium size division in Mulpha Trading (M) Sdn Bhd. Steven Wong then was the General Manager, the highest ranking, numero uno. Michael Kuan was from Penang and was invited down to head the Calculator/Electronic Typewriter Department (ETW).

Surprise! Yes, Canon once a upon a time manufactured electronic calculators and electronic typewriters.

Michael Kuan was my boss then. In 1983/84(?), Liew Sip Chon came over for an interview with Michael Kuan and you all know what happened since. Liew came over from Olivetti, the direct competitor of electronic typewriters for Canon. At that time, there were only two brands of ETW. Olivetti and Canon. IBM had the outdated electric golf ball typewriters.

There were 2 main sales departments then, The calculator/ETW department and the copier department. The copier department was headed by Larry Poon then. Larry Poon today runs Avaxx, one of the two national distributors for Nokia handphones.

You know who Goh Kheng Peow is, of course. He was then with us in Michael Kuan's team. Some of the others are today's who's who in Malaysia. Some names?

Esther Law, Penny Chan, Edwin Chin, Joe Wong, Ricky Yip, Thomas Wong, Simon Tay, NS Tan, Steven Tan, Yan Yoke Ping, Peter Chong, etc.

Richard Yeow, Jack Lim, Philip Quek and others were in the copier department.

A pleasant old song by Jim Croce for you?

I can't seem to find the original version. But this is a wonderful cover.

Something New 4Me in CSL

Everybody connected with Canon Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd one way or another would know of his Highness LSC.

CSL? wtf is this?

The fish head restaurant that used to be in Jalan Tiga Chan Sow Lin has moved to Jalan 5. If you are not as forgetful as I, you would remembered I did 2 posts on this famous restaurant. Now in this new place, the signboard says CSL.

Almost always the fish head dish of choice for me would be the sauce steamed version. Never fail to satisfy me. I've tried the curry version once. Didn't work for me. They have altogether 5 versions.

Being unusually adventurous last week, I tried the fried version. In Cantonese, it is called hong siew yue tow. For the non Cantonese reader, the fish head is deep fried and then generously bathed in an ingredient filled sauce.

It was lovely. You have roast pork siew yoke, bean curd tow foo, fried bean curd slices foo pei, pork lard chi yow cha and vegetables in the ample sauce. This dish is also sprinkled with fried and spring onions with a lime thrown in. The fish meat was delicious, crispy on the outside and soft and sweet on the inside. At the tail end of the meal, the sauce soaked fish head skin is a delight to savour. I strongly recommend you try this version if you have not, the next time you go there.

I understand Alicia Hooi likes to go places to makan makan as well. "Alicia, have you been here yet?"

The portion is big.




"Andrew Kong, are you listening?"

1918

I thought I frighten you a little today.

World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history. A total of about 72 million people died altogether.

Civilians killed totaled around 47 million, including 20 million from war-related disease and famine.

Total military dead: about 25 million including deaths in captivity of about 4 million prisoners of war.

Axis dead: approximately 11 million; Allied dead: about 61 million.

What happened in 1918 was really equally horrifying. Just that, you may not know though.

The 1918 flu pandemic (commonly referred to as the Spanish flu) was an influenza pandemic that spread to nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually virulent and deadly influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin of the virus. Most of its victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients. The flu pandemic has also been implicated in the sudden outbreak of encephalitis lethargica in the 1920s.

The pandemic lasted from March 1918 to June 1920, spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. It is estimated that anywhere from 50 to 100 million people were killed worldwide, or the approximate equivalent of one third of the population of Europe. An estimated 500 million people, one third of the world's population (approximately 1.6 billion at the time), became infected.



















There you have it. 72 million people died in the 2nd World War, the deadliest military conflict in history. I think the war lasted 7 years.

In the 2 years of 1918-1920, maybe 100 million people died worldwide. And one third of the world's population became infected. Would my calculations be correct if I say maybe 140,000 people died per day?

Go figure!

This post reminds me of the time when I was really young. Then I used to listen to the Sunday's Kee Huat Radio's Fantastic Facts and Figures over the radio. We didn't have television then.

PPSMI - Who Loses

I have been reminded several times to go into Mahathir's blog by friends and acquaintances to vote against the recent decision to revert on a important aspect of our educational policy.

I did my part in the survey quite a while ago already. Not that I think it is going to make any difference anyway. The vote result currently is overwhelmingly against the current governmental decision, about 85% against. Hardly surprising.

Most voters taking part in this survey are English speaking and English reading.

By the way, like most people, I am convinced that the policy is politically motivated as both Barisan and Pakatan continue to struggle to woo the masses. And quite a bit of these people are not English speaking and English writing people. Strangely, this same people reject the usage of English for Science and Mathematics for the sake of their children, thinking they can't cope. I have always believed that a language is best acquired by its usage, not so much as a subject to be learnt.

My take is that the implementation year 2012 is chosen to enable the Government time to make a flip flop change just in case the mood changes. My bet is that eventually, it will turn out to be Bahasa for everything in Primary and the use of English as a medium for Science and Mathematics in Secondary.

Anyhow, there will be a group of people who will not be affected either way. They will be children and grandchildren of Mahathir. Jack Lim, Badawi, Larry Poon, Khairy, Liew Sip Chon, Rocky's Bru, Goh Kheng Peow, Haris Ibrahim, NS Tan, Niamah, Rick Low, Andrew Kong, Peter, Choon Heng, and so on and so.

I have no idea how big is this group, maybe 10% of the Malaysian population? Maybe less?

You can bet your ass that regardless of how the policy would turn out, they (we) are going to make sure that their (our) children will acquire proficiency in spoken and written English during the 1st 17 years of their lives. They will probably enter English medium colleges and English medium universities, here and abroad. Their (our) children will also be fairly proficient in the Chinese language acquiring this skill in a Chinese primary school and be proficient in the Malay language for obvious reasons.

Proficiency in English will be acquired by the daily usage of the language by reading, speaking and writing it.

The change to an all Malay medium instructions in schools will adversely impact on:

1. Children of current parents who do not read, speak and write English. This account for a large number of people, mostly of the rural population. They will very likely be handicapped coming out into the real world and competing internationally as well as locally.

2. The Country. Educated people especially the English speaking ones will continue to leave the country to settle elsewhere in large numbers.

How sad.

George Carlin

I was introduced to George Carlin and his "Religion Is Bullshit" visiting Siah Shu Fen's blog.

George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian. He was also an actor and author, and he won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums.

Carlin was noted for his black humor as well as his thoughts on politics, the English language, psychology, religion, and various taboo subjects. Carlin and his "Seven Dirty Words" comedy routine were central to the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a narrow 5–4 decision by the justices affirmed the government's power to regulate indecent material on the public airwaves.

Carlin was placed second on the Comedy Central cable television network list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians, ahead of Lenny Bruce and behind Richard Pryor. He was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the three-decade Johnny Carson era, and also hosted the first episode of Saturday Night Live.

This video clip coming up titled "Religion Is Bullshit" is what impressed me greatly. You may not be.

If you are not impressed with his show, I recommend that just this time, sit back and enjoy yourself. For all we know, God as you know it, may very well have a good sense of humor.

By the way, as I mentioned in a earlier post, no idea or concept is beyond criticism.

Teoh Peng Kee and George Tan

It was a chance meeting.

Early this week, I went to Do Re Mi for lunch. This place is quite near the Canon office. I took the recommended bitter gourd mee. Not awesome. No bad.

Teoh Peng Kee and George Tan came, saw us and joined our table. I met George for the first time. He was my idea of a dream employee. Courteous, Friendly, Helpful and Knowledgeable. One day he may become the CEO/President.

Teoh Peng Kee has been with Canon forever. Most pictures that you see of Canon functions over the many years, maybe 99.99% were taken by him. I would think that it is not a bad idea to have him oversee a compilation of the history of Canon Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd in pictures. This can be on CanonFotoBook. Hard copies to be given out appropriately and a soft version to be on the official Canon website. Another hard copy to be given to me, of course. For my coffee table.














Teoh Peng Kee is a awesome story teller. His gestures, his voice and his body language will have you believe in whatever he choose to tell you. This happens every time when he speaks in Cantonese. It could be the same if he speaks in English or Japanese or Tamil. Just that, I have not have the opportunity to hear him tell his stories in another language yet.

He is as synonymous with the Canon brand of camera as Simon Yam may one day be.

Incidentally, the curry mee in Do Re Mi is good. It is prepared the Ipoh way, with BBQ and Roasted Pork thrown in.

I Just Can't Stop Loving You

I heard somebody singing this song last night.

Of all the songs done by Michael Jackson, I will be hard pressed to be able to name this one from memory. This one is not a common song usually selected by the radio stations for air plays.

I thought this is a beautiful song.

This clip was of Michael Jackson and Siedah Garret in The Dangerous Tour 1992! Live in Bucharest.

He is such a joy to watch, no?

And he has got such long slender erotic fingers, don't you think?

Bali 18/6-21/6 The Food

I know, I know.

Just when you thought that this Bali nonsense is all finally gone and behind us now, here I have another episode to test your patience.

On my scout's honor, (with my right arm raised in a 90 degree manner with fingers a closed three), I promised that this will be my last report on the said trip.

Meals on board Qatar Airways were passable. Not good, not terrible.

Our first meal in Bali was a dinner. We arrived after night fell and were met at the airport by Wyatt, the guide whom later I thought was an idiot.

He took us to this place called Jimbaran or something for dinner. This is a beach area with sizable waves to watch while you have dinner by the sea. Really, nothing much to look at as night has fallen. We had a grilled Red Snapper and some grilled sotongs. The vegetable dish was fried kangkong. The food was really good. The sweet sour sauce was awesome. The price was also pretty reasonable. Can't remember how much though. This place was called Ocean Blue.

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All breakfasts were taken in the hotel. A very good spread and done well. We enjoyed much the variety of breads, and bacon and eggs. By the way, the omelette's were purposely overcooked to suit our taste without our asking. Like foo yong tan, if you know what I mean.

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Lunch on the 2nd day was in this restaurant buffet fashion at the place where you take pictures with some volcano behind you. The food was just terrible. Really. Either strange tasting or tasteless.

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We went to some street stalls along the Kuta Beach for our 2nd dinner. We ordered some fried rice, some meat and some vegetables. Again, terrible food.

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The next day's lunch was McDonald's. Pretty good. No pork burger though.

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Dinner, we went to this place nestled among the hundreds of bargain shops I mentioned in a earlier post. The place was packed to the brim. Food good. Price reasonable. Name forgot. As I walked away after the dinner down the road a little, some young people came up to me to ask for this restaurant. I asked if they learnt about this place from the Internet and one said yes. No wonder!

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On the last night, I asked a wonderful staff at the hotel for the place in Jimbaran again. She offered to get somebody from there to come pick us up at the hotel to go there. The journey took about 30 minutes. Another beach, remember? You get a free ride to and fro if you patronize the restaurant.

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This time the restaurant was called Jimbaran Beach Seafood, I think.

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We ordered the grilled stuff again. However, I was a little bit more generous and had a lobster as well.

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The beach face west and this time, night hasn't fallen yet. Wonderful sunset experience. Truly wonderful. See?

Red Tomato

Last Friday on 3rd July 2009, Red Tomato was launched.

Red Tomato Economics & Lifestyle Weekly is a weekly publication made available free of charge for certain areas of the Klang Valley. I assume they would want to expand out gradually to cover the nation. Currently their circulation is about 100,000 copies with their primary target at 19-35 years old. Chinese educated people no doubt.

I've received a copy (free of course) last Friday and I flipped through the pages just. Nothing. It was all in Chinese and I am of course a banana.

Nonetheless on page 3, I recognised Simon Wong and Simon Yam. What else was familiar include the Canon, Delighting You Always tag line. Also I could see pictures of cameras of models Ixus 95 IS, Ixus 110 IS and the EOS 500D.

So you asked, what's the point of this post?

Gee, I hope you didn't ask that!

What I do know is that this project is very close to Samantha Sim's heart. Samantha is a CanonMalaysian. She is terribly emotional about this publication, I can tell.

Reading Samantha's wall on facebook, you can feel her passion on this project. She too was saying there were people out there trying to discredit and bring down this weekly publication.

Samantha, I wish you success all the way. You go girl!

No Walk in the Park for Federer

It was no walk in the park for Roger Federer. Andy Roddick took Federer to 5 sets and seemed unbreakable on his service, shooting blurs close to 150 mph!

Congratulations! Mr Roger Federer. You are now without a doubt the numero uno of tennis accumulating 15 big ones. Pete Sampras of whom you toppled was there to witness the event.

What do you know. Woody Allen was there too with Soon-Yi Previn. This was the first time I saw 39 year old Soon-Yi live. Of course she was the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow who raised her while she (Mia) was with Woody Allen. When Soon-Yi married Woody Allen in 1997, a lot of eye brows were raised on their 35 years age difference.

This one is an old picture of them.
















You know I always try to post some pictures to spice up the posts a little. Speaking to some of my men friends, the favourite tennis player today is Ana Ivanovic, no doubt.

Well, she retired with an injury on her fourth round play with Venus Williams not long ago here in Wimbledon.

Sister Act 3, Serena's Got It

I did not manage to catch the women's final yesterday.

I watched a repeat just now. I was settling down for a boring Wimbledon Ladies Final. Not really so. It was pretty exciting really.

Vijay Amritraj was commenting that he thought Serena has better moves than Venus. He said that during the tie break in the first set. I thought different. Then I think I guess the body shape of Serena must have distracted me. She is a terrific athlete no doubt. However Venus certainly looked more it.

At the 2nd championship point, I had the impression that Serena bagi chance and hit a tame short forehand. If I am right, then playing a sibling in the finals may mess with your fiercely competitive brain momentarily.

Now I am going to bathe and ready myself for the Federer Roddick match a little later this evening.

It will be a surprise if Roger Federer does not win and stamp his moment in history with a 15th Grand Slam event title.

You may know that Andy Roddick and Mandy Moore were an item back in 2002. Grab a load of this picture?

Bali 18/6-21-6 The Shopping

Shopping anywhere has the least attraction for me.

I buy things of course. Going to buy things that I need or want is what I would do. Going to see what is there to buy is not natural for me. Getting into a protracted bargaining process with shop owners and assistants is almost painful for me.

Apparently I was told that normal people love to do the things that can prove to be painful for me. And some of these people are closely related to me.

Behind the Hardrock Hotel that we stayed in are hundreds of shops that you can bargain away the days and bargain away the nights. We spent a considerable amount of time in this vicinity.


Yah I know, you can feel my pain.

Bali 18/6-21/6 The Band

I believed I mentioned about CentreStage in an earlier post. The main entrance to the hotel is the main entrance to this dance club.

Let me show you a picture. The nightly shows are open to all and sundry.


















Out of the 3 evenings I spent in Bali, I spent two here.

I do not remember the name of the band. It wasn't awesome. However, they were versatile and I enjoyed the energy the band generated. The lead singer can do various genre and his version of Curt Corbain's "Smells like Teen Spirit" was exhaustingly uplifting. (can't help putting in a oxymoron here.)

There were 2 girls singing lead in turn as well. The slimmer one was always craving for attention. She sort of specializes in numbers by Guns 'n Roses. She did Sweet Child of Mine both nights and they were good. Her problem was her talking too much between songs. I can't make out what she was rambling about and she has a diction problem when she spoke. I think the band is a Filipino band.

From the next 2 pictures, you can see the girls dancing on the bar, climbing down from the 10 feet elevated stage. This they did frequently.

Actually on the last evening, another band took over. As we have to leave for the airport very shortly after they started, we had no chance to see them perform. But the little I heard, I think they were good, possibly even better than the first group.