Boys never grow up.

It's 2a.m. on an work week and I can't sleep! With nothing better to do and running out of sheep to count, I logged on and scour the web for new addition to my toys. This is when I came to realize that guys never really grow up. Most guys anyway.

Physically we might grow... be it vertical or lateral growth. Mentally or at least the part which controls our sense of joy and excitement (please do not misinterpret this) however, never really change much.

As a pre-teen boy, I love toys, games (bottle caps, game books, board games) and cartoons. 15 years after I was last categorized as a boy, I still love toys, games and cartoons. Only difference, these things are more expensive. My toys are no longer RC cars, LEGO sets or water guns but cameras and AV equipments. The games are no longer bottle caps, paper cards, millionaire or Dungeon & Dragon game books but PC games or in the form of eenie minnie miney moe for what CD to listen to. Cartoons are definitely no longer Thundercats or Doraemon on TV but some japanese anime or international films (especially those that are banned in Malaysia).

These days, my toys cost me an arm or a leg or sometimes both. My first toy bought with my own money was the ancient Powershot A70. After the initial excitement which all toys provide, in time it starts to attract less and less attention from me.

Half a year after I started work, I rewarded myself with a Yamaha MCR-E700, a wonderful micro-hifi. That provided me with hours of pleasure listening to the likes of Emi Fujita, Diana Krall, Ella Fitzgerald and Katie Melua.

Slightly more than half a year ago, I bought myself yet another toy. This time, my new love to replace the sad, ancient Powershot A70; a Nikon D60. The Nikon D60 is by far the most expensive toy I've ever got myself. Just 3 months after I got the D60 and I got another lens to complement the kit lens. The reason? To enhance my "equipment" making it larger and more capable and powerful.

Another 3 months has passed since and I'm now looking for something new again. A new lens that was just release by the manufacturer? or perhaps a true-blue hifi system?

All this sounds so much like a kid getting bored with his existing toys and wanted something new every now and then. The only problem is, the toys are more expensive and I can't throw a tantrum to have someone for it. Sigh.

Feeling slightly dejected by the fact that I simply cannot afford anymore toys, I wrote this post with the conclusion that boys never really grow up but their toys do!

Penang Makan Trip Part 1

Out of boredom, a few of us planned to go to Penang for the weekend for a Makan Trip.. Penang which is famous for its unlimited array of delicacies had always been my first choice stop for Makan Trip..

On the way, we stopped by Ipoh for dim sum... MK suggest that we go to Ming Court since I have brought some of them to Foh San before this. Since I have never been to Ming Court before, I agreed.. Frankly speaking, I felt that Foh San is still the best for dim sum. They offer more variety, better service, and definitely bigger dim sum..

Loh Mai Kai... the taste is not bad..

Super small prawn dumplings (ha kao) and siu mai..

Upon our arrival at Penang, we were greeted by TY, who is going to be our tour guide for this 2 days trip... Our first stop is Penang Road for the famous cendol..

A bowl of Cendol in a sunny afternoon.. Heavenly..

Next, we went for curry mee which is situated nearby the Cendol stall...The curry mee is different from the normal curry mee found elsewhere.. It comes in a bowl of white soup and curry paste.. You will have to mix the paste with the soup to get the red colour soup base..
The curry mee is aromatic and taste great.. Besides ordering the curry mee, TY also ordered some side dishes as well.. He ordered the Lobak and groundnut sweet soup...I have tasted this type of groundnut sweet soup back in Uni.. Personally, I prefer the groundnut "wu" which is made of roasted groundnut and ground to smooth and fine texture.

Penang style curry mee..

Groundnut sweet soup...Not really my taste..

Penang Lobak..Yummy..

Up next is the famous Char Kuey Teow at Lorong Selamat.. which we waited for more than one hour.. While waiting, we ordered some food to keep ourselves busy.. hehe..

Asam laksa.. Look at the generous shrimp paste and that huge piece of fish..

Penang Otak-otak

Penang otak-otak is steamed instead of grilled... The otak-otak is slightly more moist compared to Muar otak-otak ( I mean the steamed Muar otak-otak and not the grilled type) with some daun limau purut which adds more aroma to this dish..

Fried oyster with egg, "Oh Chian"

I like the fried oyster with egg because it's not too starchy... it will become too sticky if too much starch is added... The oyster is a bit small though..

Hokkien Mee.. We called it Prawn Mee..

Just a normal Prawn Mee.. nothing special.. According to TY, some ppl add the Loh Mee sauce into the Prawn Mee. It's another way of enjoying this dish.. Penang style, may be?

ABC..with Atapchi of course :)

Probably, we have waited too long for the Char Kuey Teow, when the dish arrived, we forgot to take a photo of it.. But the Char Kuey Teow is really nice and worth the wait..

Since everyone is stuffed and too full to continue eating, we decided to go for a walk at the Botanical Garden.. to help burn some calories before another round of food marathon..

It was a sunny day...While the guys were busy posing for their personal portrait, I take the opportunity to enjoy the greens..

Colourful canyon ball flower..

Clear blue sky..

For dinner, we went to Gurney Drive. We ordered a lot of food... rojak, cuttlefish with kangkung, rojak udang, muah chee (my favorite) , asam laksa (another round of asam laksa :P , but the asam laksa here is not nice), char kuey teow (a big difference from the one Lorong Selamat in terms of price and quality, still prefer Lorong Selamat hehe) To be continued...

Lonely Weekend with Japanese Movies

Few weeks ago, I recommended some Brit films and thoroughly enjoyed sharing the movies I liked with you all. This long lonely weekend, I spent quite sometime watching some Japanese movies instead (with English subs of course!).

This reminded me of another set of movies that I'd like to recommend. I'm not sure how old these movies are. Some might have been around for ages already. Nevertheless, I came up with this list of Japanese movies which I found to be really nice.

I know that somehow these days, Korean drama is all the hype. Japanese productions were like out of style or something like that. I, personally have preferred Japanese productions over Korean. So without further ado, here's the selection.

Koizora - This one should be quite recent and famous nonetheless. It's based on a cellphone novel which is all the hype over in Japan. Japanese films and animes tend to be about life in high school. This movie is about all that's got to do with high school life of a teenage girl. Watch this and be prepared to experience an emotional roller-coaster ride. Romance, tragedy, financial turmoil, romance, tragedy and then somemore tragedy finally ending with something warm and heartfelt. I watched this like 3 months ago during my flight to US. Perhaps my condition at that time marred my judgement for this movie. Watch it and give me your verdict.

Taiyou no Uta - As with most Japanese movies, it always revolves around the life of a student. Perhaps that is why young adults like me, who sometimes still reminicense the bliss of student life is attracted to these movies. What really attracts me to this movie is the wonderful theme song. The english translation of the movie title is "A song to the sun". That song and the voice of the singer is truly mesmerizing. The story is not so bad as well.

Tada Kimi wo Aishiteru - This one requires quite a bit of imagination and the lack of critical judgemet on the details to enjoy. Nevertheless, it's an enjoyable film. Started off in a silly and funny tone but ending with a tragedy which was again wrapped up with a warm and heartfelt aftertaste. It was the story of love bound together by photography and a secluded forest.

Waterboys - If you watch any non-horror Japanese films before, you'd definitely heard of this movie before. It's been around for quite sometime. This is the only one which I've watched in the past 3 months which did not involve intense romance and tragedy. It's a crazy, funny film about a bunch of dudes doing synchronized swimming.

After writing this post, I realized one thing. All these Japanese films involve a lame guy. Hmm.... why?

On top of that, too much Japanese movies / anime is not a good thing. IMO, they all tend to go by the same storyline with small changes here and there. Regardless, enjoy these few selections and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Halloween Themed Family Day!

Halloween, it is such a hyped up festivity here in US. Considering that it's a festival similar to 14th July of the Chinese Calendar!

In the Chinese equivalent of the Halloween, we would be sitting at home trying our best not to go out at night/go swimming/hiking/practically anything that exposes one to the ethereal beings. However, it seems that Americans are impervious to this threat and it's one hell of a celebration here.

Being a dull guy with extremely thin wallet, I chose not to partake this festivity in the clubs in US. Say whatever you want, a costume can cost 50usd easily! So no thanks.

Lucky me though, my company threw a pre-Halloween party (in broad daylight though). To be precise, it's more like a Family Day/ Fair. Still it's a nice event which scores a couple of first for me.

- 1st Halloween Themed Party
- 1st time eating a whole grilled turkey leg (a popular party food here)
- 1st time tasting chili & cheese on tortilla chips (it's addictive and terrible for the waistline)
- 1st time I caught thieving pumpkin snatchers! :P



Halloween must haves! Witches! (Witch you should get one of these!)


Creepy skeleton guy ogling at hot cheer leader.


Huge oily turkey leg, sinfully tasty chili & cheese tortilla chips paired with cold beer of course!


Pumpkin snatchers!!!


What's Halloween without a huge bunch of these!


Nice pumpkin patch.

Music That Speaks

I'm not sure what's happening to the music scene these days. What happened to music that you can actually listen to each and every word and understand what's the singer is singing. The trend nowadays seemed to lean towards incessant, speedy, incomprehensible mutterings. What is wrong with singing something that people can actually understand? Or are their lyric writing skills so bad that they have to cover it up by speeding through the lyrics like a runaway train?

But then thinking about it, I was never really in sync with the crowd in terms music preferences.

However, I'd like to introduce you to some of the songs that I really liked.

1. Katie Melua - Nine Million Bicycles
I stumbled upon this when I was a sad and lonely soul in Vietnam and the lyrics really speaks to me. Finding that someone special among the crowd.

2. Adam Sandler - Grow Old With You
Well, most of you would be familiar with this one from the movie "The Wedding Singer". Super funny and touching lyrics.

3. Hugh Grant & Haley Bennett - Way Back into Love
This one has a lovely tune as well as clear audible lyrics which conveys the meaning of the title of the song itself. How simple and nice is that? It's like the K.I.S.S rule that engineers always use. :)

4. Katie Melua - The Closest Thing To Crazy
Another wonderful piece by Katie Melua. I was simply mesmerized by her voice. It's a kind of sad song that reflects the sadness and craziness of youthful romance. At least that's my take of it.

5. The Beatles - Hey Jude
Everyone has heard of this song. Take a sad song and make it better. How more positive can it be?

6. The Beatles - All You Need is Love
A song cannot be simpler and more direct in it's message. There's nothing that is impossible but all you need is to learn to be yourself and of course "Love".


From this selection of songs it is clear that I'm missing someone dearly. So I dedicate all these to you, CH. Especially this one.



To everyone else, I hope you can rediscover the enjoyment of music in it's simplest form. Hope you like it.