Of Graduations & Weddings

Now that I'm back from Penang, I have got to let you know what went down in that time! I am gonna talk lesser today... More pics, less talk! Sleep is already calling unto me!

Friday morning in Penang was hectic. We woke up super early to get ourselves to USM in time. It felt great being among so many university students again... I felt young (A lot of people said I look younger than my brother... hahaha)! Thus, my job for the day started: driver, photographer, florist, delivery boy, drink holder, socialite... and the list goes on! Hahaha. (Not complaining bro... Proud to be those; proud of you!)

Before graduation ceremony

After graduation ceremony... Ta-da... now he has flowers!

In between the top two pics is a story of its own. I was actually hanging out in a lecture room where you can watch the graduation live! That's way better than UTM who leaves the rest of the family members under tentage, sweating away! However, I still slept off after it was my brother's turn!

I was totally bored and restless!

Here, you can actually see Ultraman and Spongebob floating in the air.

The only shot we took at my bro's graduation! Even for this, I'm still the cameraman!

My bro's best buds (BFF)! Hahaha... sounds so girly!

We had a graduation dinner after that!

Didn't bother to take any proper pics of the dinner... too hungry, too tired~So it's only my drink; Vanilla Milk Shake.

Once graduation day was over, the next day, we had to rush down to a very close friend's wedding, none other than Anand's and Atchra's!

Bride & Groom

Going through the wedding ceremony


Presenting: Mr. & Mrs. Anand

Looking stunning in traditional Punjabi costume!

Us and the newly weds!

The guys: Spot the odd one out...

The gals: Dot's head looks like it's detached from her body and honestly... I don't know what Mei Ching's doing (the one in baby blue dress)

Sharing a light moment with Lil' Jared

Anil's (Anand's brother's) college mates. We had an amazing dinner time. We hit it off the first time. Great company! Couldn't have asked for better dinner mates!

An amazing candid shot. It really captured the moment!

This is where everybody is well behaved! Hahaha!

This is something we discovered in the hall (Courtesy of Sue & Dan). Wanna take a guess what this means?

You guessed it right! Wireless Zone! Hahaha. Lost in translation!

Anyways, coming to end of my posting, I just wanna congratulate my bro on his graduation! Fantastic job, bro! The world awaits your deposit into this generation!

For the newly weds, Anand & Atch, have a loving and blessed marriage all the days of your life! Be fruitful and multiply! Hahaha!

(Wedding pics courtesy of Sue... Thanks!)

Treasure Hunters

Now that the whole birthday thingy is over, reality has kicked in... hahaha. I'm now in Penang for my brother's graduation. I started my journey on Wednesday morning. The whole day was spent driving...

(drove until the steering wheel cover also torn)

driving... (with a slightly better view)

and... driving (picture paints a thousand words... hahaha)

We broke journey in Taiping in my aunt's place to meet up with my beloved grandma. She had a fall earlier this year and had to go through an operation. She was in Kluang with my mum for some time before she moved in together with my aunt for a couple of months. I missed my grandma a lot. She's awesome!

My grandma has a tattoo... check it out! See the green markings on her hand? That is an old school tattoo! They are more happening than what we make them out to be. But she didn't like my latest haircut though. Hahaha. Her hair is all-white, her eyebrows are white... Snow White but we (my bro and I) aren't even close to dwarfs!

My bro and I got up on Thursday morning thirsty for an adventure... actually, more like I was thirsting for one. We decided to go check out the historical sights of Taiping since we are both historical buffs.

Our first stop: THE OLD CLOCK TOWER

Sitting at the heart of the town, this magnificent clock tower was originally built with wood and had gone through much renovation during the years.

Outside the clock tower is an old BRITISH-LIKE PHONE BOOTH which bring out the feeling like you're in London or something... hahaha.

The clock tower houses a small little office and counter for tourists (that's me...) to make queries and find out more about Taiping. So we chatted with the person in charge, En. Annuar.

We had a long chat as I asked him more about the first RAILWAY TRACKS FROM TAIPING TO PORT WELD and how do I go about getting there. Mr. Annuar then replied that the tracks no longer exist because people have removed and thrown it away to make way for development. People just didn't see the value in it!

I was a little angered with the whole thing! Port Weld-Taiping was the first railway line that ran in Malaysia. It was opened on 1 June 1885 to transport tin from Larut and other tin-rich areas to be exported through Port Weld. Imports came in from Port Weld and was sent through the trains as well. I had to study ALL of these facts to sit for my HISTORY PAPER and now they tell me that it's not there! The sleepless nights and the amount of oil burnt staying awake...! Totally nonsensical and unacceptable!

Seeing our enthusiasm and passion for history, he then hinted that if we really, really, really wanted to see part of the railway artifacts... we actually could! I got super excited. He said that it was in King Edwards school! I thanked him and immediately rushed to the school!

Being the smart and Mr. Know-it-all that I am, I reached the school, parked my car...

Only to realize that it's the wrong school!!! I was actually at ST. GEORGE'S SECONDARY SCHOOL! And they are "enemies". Hahaha! How am I supposed to know which is which. I'm not even a local. However, the school was beautiful!

Sadly, we also found a dead rat in St. George's School's drain... Hahaha!

So we asked directions and headed down to King Edward VII Secondary School. When we reached there, we rushed in and met the Asst. Principal who told us that... This ISN'T the school! We were like... "WHAT?!!"

It was actually King Edward VII Primary (2)... Can you imagine if we had gone to Primary (1) and then later told that it was actually Primary (2)? Hahaha. Anyways, our spirit were still up although I had a very hard time trying to convince my brother that it was all worth it because he wanted to badly go off to Penang already!

So we headed down to the school... King Edward VII Primary (2)!

We rushed to the office in excitement totally looking forward to this discovery that even many Taiping people didn't know about! In the office, we were met by this guy who attended to us.

When we asked him about the artifacts, he didn't even know about it! He told us that the school had no such things! Our hearts sank!

We didn't give up and continued pressing in... Thank God a lady nearby heard our conversation and noted to the man that there were some "plates" hanging at the back and that maybe we were looking for that!

The guy's response was classic. He went something like this, "Oh, besi yang gantung kat belakang tu, eh?" ("Oh, the metal that's hanging at the back, is it?") Me and my bro were staring in disbelief. Without any escort or help, we searced and finally found what we were looking for... "Part of The Lost Tracks of the Taiping-Port Weld Railway Line"!

Also serving as a carpark?!!

Feeling like treasure hunters!

This was really the highlight of the whole trip! The rest of it fails in comparison! You have got to really go and check this out if you're down in Taiping. If you're looking for something a little more different, I think this would be it!

It was fun but a little tiring so it was absolutely cool to have a room with a sea view when we reached Penang! Yippee... I love the sea!

And a bonus pic of me trying this funky pink sunglasses! Hahaha! Price tag still attached!

That's all for now! Sleep beckons me!

08.08.08

Finally... I get to blog on the happenings over the weekend. I had to control myself because it was so tempting to blog along the way; that would make it a lot less fun! You know me... fun, fun, fun!

So what went down? Honestly, at the stroke of midnight, I was doing my laundry! Haha. People were saying, "It's your birthday!" Well, my answer is simple... "The laundy ain't gonna do itself, even if it's my birthday!" So there you have it, historic moment... the turn of 08.08.08... doing laundry... "Love 'em pegs!"

Well, my day was pretty much routine except for the fact that the deejays on 987fm... AM Mayhem with Dan Ong, Mr. Young and Ms. Vendetta actually "counted down" (... is that how you say it?) the historical 08.08.08 at 08.08.08 AM. Hahaha.

Funniest Deejays in the land!

Lunch was amazing! Aimei came down so we had birthday lunch at Fish & Co. She got me a SMET by Christian Audigier, L.A Street Wear! Way cool!

After work, I hit the gym, training the legs and shoulders - don't worry... no pics for this one. Hahaha.

After that, the guys (and gals), my closest buds in Singapore (like family to me in this land) brought me out for late night birthday outing they were *hinting on for so long! Hahaha... like for the whole week. Had lotsa, lotsa fun celebrating together with 'Zane whose birthday falls on the same week.

I had to hold this blowing post like for half minute due to *proffesional photo taking skills by Mayce.... Hahaha.

'Zane's turn!

i-birthday! Hahaha.

The party continues the next day at Holland V. for lunch with some more buddies. It's great to have great buddies! This one's an all-guys lunch out. Had the famous Katong Laksa and lotsa Otak. The otak's pretty good but definitely not as good as the best otak in the whole world... Muar Otak-Otak.

Great shot, Shawn! You missed half of your face! Hahaha. Shawn's supposed to be good with this kind of stuff but not everyday's Sunday so... there you have it, a "Monday" shot! Hahaha!

Better! Dan, Shawn and Ing Chuan. Hmmnn... just a thought... they all kinda look the same, right? Hahaha! Guess who sticks out like a sore thumb?!

Rina got me this awesome teddy bear with my name on it! Totally loved it! So I decided to mess with Dev, the teddy a 'lil... just a 'lil!

One's a super studious one, always going online to do research (note the phone port nearby) and the other is a rugged, nubian goat's milk drinking teddy bear; both bent to go to Thai Odyssey [a birthday present courtesy of Adrian & Mei Ching... thanks guys... you rox... (these bears have got bad grammar)]!

Also had a couple of takes together with some of the people I mentor and train. They may be young but these guys are the future; a bundle of potential waiting to be released! Watch out world, here they come!

This one's a night out at de'Bali, a new spot in town... just two weeks old with the some of the zaniest and coolest people in JB!

Didn't see the above shot coming, courtesy of Jon Zng Fendi! (Shout out to Jon Zng Fendi: Thx for the pics, bro!)

The finale of it all is definitely the best; dinner with Aimei at Chef Papa, a French restaurant. The ambience and atmosphere was amazing; the food to top it all off was great!

This is the look of satisfied customers!

All in all, it has been an amazing birthday weekend! Thanks for making it great for me guys! You are the best!

Of course, not forgetting Beijing and half of the world celebrating this momentous day together with me... thanks to all! Haha!

08.08.08 rocks!

Tea-Pen

Tuesday was an interesting day. I was up by 6 am because I had to be at the Ritz-Carlton, Millenia for training. It was the Global Leadership & Mentoring Congress 2008; Leadership &

Service Science: A New Paradigm in Innovation.

I was there by 8 am, one of the earliest. I had a chat with some colleagues before I sat at my comfortable spot by the corner (for leg space... I'm quite tall... hahaha) quite close to the front.

This year's line up of speakers includes a host of luminaries which include K.P. Ho (Chairman, MediaCorp), Chua Sock Koong (Group CEO, SingTel), Y.Y. Wong (Founder & Chairman, Wywy Group), Philip Ng (CEO, Far East Org) and Peter Kok (M.D., Key Clients UBS). I thoroughly enjoyed Y.Y. Wong and Peter Kok's insights into leadership. I missed out on K.P. Ho's key note address the day before. I heard that it was also awesome.

Some of the hotly debated issues on leadership were discussed freely; Leadership: Nurture or Nature was just one of the examples. So what do you think?

Leadership: Is it determined by DNA and your make-up or is it something that can be nurtured?

Are leaders born or made?

Let me know what you think! Drop a comment at the Comment box NOT the CBOX. Hahaha. I've gotta let you guys know beforehand or else you guys always have a leaning towards doing the absurd... lunacy... tsk, tsk like dropping a 500 word comment on the cbox. Hahaha. Do drop a comment on what you think ok! It'll be great to know what's on your mind!

After hearing everybody speak, I was convinced that there were definitely a lot of nuggets of wisdom to be brought back and pondered upon!

Well, I didn't really take much pics of the event; felt a little awkward snapping. So the only shot I had inspired the title for this post: Tea-Pen

Hahaha. Enjoy a cuppa English Breakfast Tea; nothing beats it in the morning!

A Star To The Stars

Running after your dreams can be quite challenging sometimes. I realized that we are quite afraid of our own dreams. It's great having them but the challenge is being the person that would make the dream come to pass. I have these great dreams of doing great things; leaving a mark on earth in my lifetime, but sometimes my heart palpitates, my hands tremble just at the thought of it.

I tried writing down one of those dreams/ambitions the other day. Just the thought of it, and it felt as if my heart was going to jump off the middle of my thorax. Funny how we are sometimes so afraid of such things.

Maybe because we can't really see with our eyes; our future. That's why we are so afraid. It's like walking in a pitch black forest. I was reminded of this time when I went jungle trekking in my uni days as part of a leadership training camp. It was at night and everything was pitch black (what do you expect... hahaha)! They dropped us off at various points in the jungle to be in solitude. Crazy! I didn't feel solace at all. I felt as if there were like a million pairs of eyes watching me. It felt as if there were a pair of eyes from the tree, above the tree, below the tree and everywhere else 'cause i was surrounded by trees.

It was quite a scary experience because all I could do was grope around in the dark. Can you imagine groping around and discovering that another hand is groping your hand?... gulp. Shudder. Shudder.

All I did was just tell myself that it was just another exercise and that I'm going to be fine! True enough... I'm alive and blogging! You just got to see beyond the current situations and know that things are gonna be great!

So why this mad, random rambling? I just found out that this little girl (my friend's sis) whom I use to help out is now playing basketball in an open championship. She used to come to me when she was still 5 or 6 and ask me to teach her to shoot hoops. I don't think I did much except to just help her dribble the ball around and 'layan' a little girl. The fact of the matter is that now, she's playing bball for real! It made my day!

It got me thinking... maybe that's how you leave a mark on earth in your lifetime! Help others become stars in their own right. By doing that, you become a star. Better put; a star to the stars!