Saturday, October 30, 2010

The big Two O'

On 25th October, I finally can call myself a man in his twenties. We're indeed getting older, embracing life lessons and accepting more responsibilities. Although things have really changed drastically from the previous year, I would like to hammer the thought to myself, that all these changes are for the better. Although I look content in expression, my heart is shrieking on loneliness, dwelling on the past.

Damn it how come every time I blog, I will somehow express unpleasant thoughts. 
Listening to sad old love songs sure are having its effects on me. But I can't help it they're just so good and meaningful!

Anyway, days before my birthday, I was expecting to pass my 20th in a low note, hence not having any high expectations. But on the 23rd October, I traveled back to PJ from Kampar to celebrate with my family and friends. Had a simple lunch with family at a Thai Restaurant (I'm one who truly adore sour and spicy delicacies). Then at night, dinner at Skewers, Subang Avenue with Ser Siang, Yong Meng, Kar May, Sabrina, Choon Seng and Weng Hoe. Skewers serve awesome grilled food and burgers which are very reasonably priced. Definitely a place worth visiting :). 

Cheers :D


Scrumptious food served :)
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First pint to many more beer to come that night :p

Myself, Kar May, Ser Siang, and missing Esther :P
Kar May with pint of Hoegaarden beer haha. Don't worry that's not hers but mine :P.
We former Kempas bois :). Thank you both for the Fred Perry shirt!
Pretty Kar May and Sabrina :)
So far the best Tiramisu I ever had! Added with a dash of Brandy, I heard Yee Ming(Yong Meng's sis) contributed to the recipe. No wonder it taste so good ;)


I wished :).
Thank you, every single one of you! Love you all :).
After Skewers, we moved on to Piccadilly at Millenium Square for round 2 beer drinking session, with addition of Khy Li, Zhi Lei and Vincent. As far as I know, we always drink more than we ought to. Initially the plan was I spend everyone 2 towers of beer, but at the end, we all had 4 towers. Monster x)!

Taman Megah friends :), and with Khy Li's girlfriend Zhi Lei
Bromance ;).
Yong Meng claimed he couldn't drink too much because he has a political reputation to protect :P.
Everybody that night :).

That night I think I drank a little too much, alright not a little, definitely too much. Enough said :p.

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After an awesome day back at PJ, the following day, my birthday eve, I'm back at Kampar. At night, Wei Hoong called me and asked me to watch football at mamak together, I agreed because I have no plans spending my birthday eve, and watching football is fine with me.

Soon, Wei Hoong picked me up and he said he got to return to his house to get something before going mamak. So I thought, no problem let's go his house.

As I enter his house..

They actually had a surprise mini celebration awaiting me! :)
Yummylicious pancake served with Vanilla ice-cream and Hershey's chocolate syrup. Prepared by Wei Hoong, Hor Yi, Xin Wei and Edmund :)
Definitely earned the thumbs up from me :)!
Chit-a-chat session ^^
Still staying close to our previous plan, watching football x)
:D
Thank you dear residence of 1925 x)

Later on, we moved on to play DoTA with Mark, Kai Fu, Sun Hoe, Ah Lian, Chris and Sun Hoe's 3 other friends. This is the first time I spend the very beginning of my birthday(12am, 25th Oct) playing DoTA, while last 2 years I spent that with my very special someone.

DoTA with them are always fun, filled with laughter. Though playing DoTA might sound pathetic, but I wasn't sad a single bit :).

On my birthday itself, I spend most of the day eating and shopping at Ipoh with Chris, Kai Fu and Sun Hoe. Bromance, loving it. We shopped, tried clothes on, bought 'em, watched movie hehe. It's kinda queer that we watched a touching romance movie. But nonetheless, I enjoyed it, and hope you guys did too ;).

Back to Kampar for dinner at East Ocean Restaurant, together with Kai Fu, Sin Wei, Chris, Wei Hoong, Hor Yi, Edmund, Xin Wei, Sun Hoe and Ah Lian, which was my treat :).

Guess what was on the agenda after that? DoTA hahaha.

After a couple of hours DoTA, I was supposed to be home and supposed to be surprised by Denise, Yinli and Wan Kien ahaha. But I was too caught up playing with the boys, sorry to you three :P.

We had really funny conversations and chit chat for really long while sipping on the red wine Wei Hoong and the rest gave me :).

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Lots of thanks for my family took care of me, shaping me who I am today,
Thank you Jolynn for the Nike T-3 Futsal shoe,
Thank you Thian Hong for the phone call,
Thank you Ser Siang and Yong Meng for the Fred Perry shirt,
Thank you Kar May, Sabrina and Joanne for the Padini shirt,
Thank you Choon Seng for the Protein Shake,
Thank you Wei Hoong, Hor Yi, Xin Wei and Edmund for the red wine and cake,
Thank you Yinli, Denise and Wan Kien for the cake,
Thank you all who wished me through Facebook and text message, really appreciate it.

& the endless gratitude I would actually wish to express to the countless number thoughtful people around me. I'm truly blessed to have each and everyone of you in my life.

In a nutshell, I have to say I had an awesome 20th birthday :).
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When there is up, there is down.
When there is joy, there is despair.

Two days after my birthday, my paternal grandfather left to meet his Creator. He lived 95 years of blessed life, leaving behind faithful and loving children, in-laws, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
"Yeh Yeh, you'll be dearly missed and I will study hard like how you asked me to"

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Mizuno Wave Run 2010

I truly believed I've lost the drive, the motivation to blog. I need you back, my dear blogging mojo. 

Anyway, cut the moping moments. Last Sunday, my last day of semester break, I participated in the Mizuno Wave Run, at UPM, Serdang. However, things are just different as compared to last year's Mizuno Wave Run. I wished you were there by my side, like you did last year. 

Anyway, this year we ran the same route as last year's, approximately 11km. My performance has been below par. Last year I clocked 53 minutes and this year 55 minutes 16 seconds. Last year I got 89th placing and this year 92th out of 1580 in the Men Open Category. What the hell, I need not say further, I'm personally very disappointed with myself. In running, I only accept the fact that as time passes, I get better and better. But in reality, I slacked and slapped in the face by the disheartening truth. I pledge to intensify and step up my training. No more slacking!

Anyway, congratulations to all who completed the 11km Mizuno Wave Run for the very first time! I hoped the morning has been a pleasant experience all way through :).

 Alright the morning started at 5.30am, picked up Khai Sim and Jolynn from their respective houses and drive all the way to UPM, Serdang, reaching there like around 6.30am.

This year's Mizuno Wave Run, I met a lot of familiar faces there, Xin Wei, Edmund, Meng Yoei, Hui Chuin, Kevin, Yu Szen's parents, Jensen and many more. It's obvious that the running thrills and awareness have been expanding rapidly.

This is 3 of us posing with the main board with acknowledgements to sponsors and organizers.

Myself
Khai Sim
Jolynn
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Picture with,

People from Penang! (Edmund & Xin Wei) as well as 2 of their friends 
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This is a picture of me running in constipation :).
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Finishing the run early is great. Why?

The primary reason is you can get quench your thirst by the sponsored 7up Revive or Milo :). I drank a total of 12 cups of 7up Revive at one go and an additional 2 cups of Milo, yeap I am indeed very thirsty.

Secondly only medal and personal satisfaction :). Nah, I'm kidding, medal and personal satisfaction have always prevail over the latter.

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After changing to a new dry clothing, we stumble this group of runners from the Philippines. They asked if I could spare them my medal for them to take photo for remembrance, and without a doubt I said yes. They came from thousands of kilometers away, that's the least we could do as a form of hospitality :).

3 of us with the friendly bunch of Philippinos :).
Khai Sim, myself and Jolynn complementing the Mizuno board.
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& like it was last year, Kevin participated in this Mizuno Run as well. He's the opposite of me, as I'm getting lousier, he's getting better. Kevin clinched an impressive 18th placing out of 1580 men runners with a timing of 47 minutes? Very very impressive. Way to go man! Congratulations!

Kevin and I
IMU's new recruit :p
Jump shot x)

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Last few group pictures.

Penang boys boleh!



All together.
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Last but not least, what we took home from the race.

Medal
Goodie bag!
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Hmm I highly doubt I can participate for the coming Penang Bridge Marathon :\.

Till next time, I'll see you all around :).

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Fellow Foundation-mates.

During secondary days, it is easy to mix around and stay connected with schoolmates. Having same school schedule, going tuition together and so on. But as we grow older and move on in life, it is getting harder in staying in touch with our friends. 

During my 1 year of Foundation in UTAR's PJ campus, I meet people from different walks of life. Some I still keep contact with, became close friends, but some I have not even met for almost 2 years! I'm someone who place great significance in relationships, and that includes friendship.

After reminiscencing on the good old Foundation times we had in 2008 - it was short yet memorable and now it is only something we call, memory. Then, I was thought it's time we meet up again, for old times sake and make that memory we had even more memorable.

On the 2nd of October, Pui Yee called me at night and came up with an impromptu gathering. 

Wei Bin, myself, Pui Yee, Kelly, Jason and Wei Hoong
TA2 attendants at Wong Kok Char Chan Teng, SS2. Despite organizing it on a really short notice, 6 of us turned up anyway. It's funny how we've gone different pathways. Only half of us are still studying in UTAR. 

It was great catching up and seeing them ;).

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Last week, on one of the weekdays which I can't recall, we went against the clock and the timing norm. Wei Hoong, Kai Fu, Jason, Wei Bin and I gathered at Kepong to play DoTA at a not-so-great cyber cafe after 12am. If I'm not mistaken we played for around 4 hours and then we head to Jalan Ipoh for breakfast. Yoohoo for adventurous people! :D


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7th October was the bigger gathering I organized, at 1Utama. Obviously it's tough gathering 20 plus people with 20 different agendas, thus I'm gratified with the people who turned up :).

Lunch at Nando's
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Later on we move on to Batting Cages!

The big group on the upper roof. L-R : Jason, Wen Kit, Liang Yin, Chai Yeng, myself,  Pui Yee, Sun Hoe, Kelly, Wei Hoong, Pui Shi, Jia Ding and Christina.
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More Kodak moments at the garden located at the lower ground floor :).



:)
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After that, we move on to Desa Park City to have our dinner. 

Well, in the park, there are countless numbers of active joggers and also canine lovers letting their pet playing on the grass and mingle around!

SO MANY CUTE DOGS!

The gang with 2 of the many dogs there :).

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Dinner time!

Steamboat Dinner, the food they serve are decent and fresh! Wouldn't mind going there to eat again, but too bad I forgotten the name, but still remembered the location ;).

 Lamb set for Pui Yee and I, and Beef set for Liang Yin :)
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After loading our tummy, we strolled around the park

:)
*more photos can be found on Facebook

Thank you all for making the gathering happen, I'm positive there will be another one in the future. With the incoming one with possibly more attendance! Till next time, tata!  

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Broga Hill, Semenyih



Last week, I joined Josy's KL gang to Broga Hill, Semenyih. Despite meeting them only twice, I feel very welcomed by this friendly group of people, and I do not feel as if I'm the outcast of their social circle. They are as friendly as they are outgoing, the Broga Hill trip was planned on short notice. 
The 7 of us having steamboat at Sri Petaling, 2 days before the Broga Hill trip.
We meet up at Bukit Jalil around 4.30am before cramping all into 1 Toyota Avanza. With approximately 1 hour drive, we reached the foothill which is a oil palm plantation, opposite a rabbit farm. Started our hike up at around 6am, in the dark.

Note, if anyone of you are planning to hike up Broga Hill, bring torch lights, wear long track pants and pack light. Long track pants is good if you do not want to feed the mosquitoes like I did :(. Good to note the weather too, anything other than a good clear weather would definitely ruin the trip.

Pictures courtesy from Kok Yin and Natalie.

Kelvin and Denise updating their Facebook stating they're at Broga Hill :P.
As the sun rises. Can't see the sun rising directly because it was covered by dense clouds.
Take a break, have a Kit Kat :).
Group pichaa Kelvin, Denise, myself, Josy, Mei Yee, Natalie and Kok Yin :)
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Later on, we entertained ourselves by taking jump shots x)







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& we continued hiking up :).

 
Lovely. ;)
I actually was tying my shoe lace with a right leg raised before Kok Yin asking me to pose this lol. Almost 'chao kong' :P
Denise sweet-talking these aunties with the intention of getting her son's number. Kidding xP.


Finally, a decent picture of us, Denise :).





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The view from the top is amazing. Denise described the scenic view saying "Woah.. So nice. It's like the Windows Wallpaper" haha :P 

 
 

Breathtaking view from the top





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No matter where I go, no matter what I do, at the end of the day all I think of is...


Chocolate cakes.

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I'm loving my holidays. But there's a part of me that is incomplete.