Last shout out

... the last entry of the year. Macam sedih pulak. Konon. Heheheh

Let's have a recap of 2009 so far.

Holiday trip, in no particular order:
1. Sydney
2. Singapore (2 kali... masya-allah)
3. Saigon
4. Bandung

Concerts, in no particular order:
1. Jason Mraz
2. Coldplay
3. Duffy
4. Air Supply

Note: Kudos to Jason Mraz concert cause it start on time.

Malay movie, in particular order :)
1. Setem
2. Pisau Cukur
3. My Spy
4. Papadom

Note: Ada jugak Talentime... hmmm aku tak berkenan sangat la. Banyak sangat heavy stuff. Will not be watching Mualaf. Cukuplah drama dalam hidup yang dah sedia ada.

English movie yang aku ingat:
1. Valkrie
2. Sherlock Holmes (elementary Watson)
3. 500 days of Summer
4. Hangover (OMGGGG)
5. Harry Potter (yawnnn)
6. Love Happen (yawnnn)
7. Ghost of Girlfriends Past (hahah.. great soundtrack)
8. New in Town (hahah.. karut)
9. Shopaholics (tak best adaptation dia)
10. The Proposal
11. The Ugly Truth
12. Couple's Retreat (hahahahhahahaha... yoga scene is the best)
13. The Box (only if you want to die afterwards)
14. Marley and Me

Cartoon movie:
1. Astro Boy (this is funny)
2. Cloudy with A Chance of Meatballs.

Freebies:
1. Papadom (premier siap ada pelakon datang lagi)
2. Love Happens
3. Harry Potter
4. Astro Boy
5. Pandorum
6. Air Supply concert
7. Manure training tickets ( bukan aku yang pergi please take note, haram hukumnya)
8. Kay ada bagi ticket free tak ingat apa.
9. Marley and Me (nasibbb free)

CD of the year aku:
1. Adele 19 ( people you should listen to this)
2. Stereophonics Decade of the Sun (also must own)

Song of the year:
1. Melt My heart to Stone - Adele.
2. Empire State of Mind - Jay-Z and Alicia Keys.

On personal note, dad passed away in July. I always thot that I will not cry, but I did. Semoga rohnya dicucuri rahmat.

And this year, if not much, really changed my prespective of life. And I learn a thing or two. I suppose there's no one that you can rely on except yourself. And, a word of wisdom to myself, sometimes it's not about the one thing, it's about the other and only gods know what's it's all about.

Sighhhhh

So, sayonara 2009 and here's to a new year. May it bring loads of new adventure and Stereophonics concert to KL... hehehhe.

And to all, Happy New Year!

Coldplay Live in Singapore - Viva La Vida 2009

I meant to blog properly about this. But since dah tak larat, suffice to say it was HEBAT BANGAT

Let the pictures be a reminder that I was there :)

Diriku Tak Yang Laku Laku

Hahahahah... aku sangat nak berkenalan dengan penulis lirik lagu ni. Kelakar Bangat!

Cari Jodoh by Wali Band:



Apa salahku apa salah ibuku
Hidupku dirundung pilu
Tak ada yang mau dan menginginkan aku
Tuk jadi pengobat pilu
Tuk jadi penawar rindu
Tuk jadi kekasih hatiku

*
Timur ke barat selatan ke utara
Tak juga aku berjumpa
Dari musim duren hingga musim rambutan
Tak kunjung aku dapatkan
Tak jua aku temukan
Oh tuhan inikah cobaan

**
Ibu-ibu bapak-bapak
Siapa yang punya anak
Bilang aku aku yang tengah malu
Sama teman-temanku
Karna cuma diriku yang tak laku-laku

***
Pengumuman-pengumuman
Siapa yang mau bantu
Tolong aku kasihani aku
Tolong carikan diriku kekasih hatiku
Siapa yang mau

Back to *, **, ***

Ibu bapak punya anak
Bilang-bilang aku aku yang tengah malu
Sama teman-temanku
Karna cuma diriku yang tak laku-laku

Back to ***

Shop Shop Singapore

Closing time. This is the last trip for 2009. Shopping in Singapore during Xmas. 3D2N. We stayed in Bugis in the same hotel that I stayed in when I came with Kay for Coldplay and Duffy's concert. The hotel used to be known as Golden Landmark Hotel tapi now it's Village Hotel ke.

Memang shopping extreme! (bunyi macam banyak duit...tapi sebenarnya semua blasah credit card).Barang bukan murah sangat tapi gatal jugak nak membeli. Ni shopping sampai kaki tempang. Pastu dah la takde tempat nak duduk. So banyak kali aku pergi toilet and duduk lama-lama untuk regroup and catch a breath. Senonoh ke tak? Aku tak kuasa nak cerita apa yang kitaorang beli, but suffice to we visisted all M&S outlet in Singapore in 2 days. We went to Mustafa after midnight, two nights in a row. Tah mana lagi la kitaorang pergi... aku dah hilang ingatan.

Let me just highlight apa-apa yang menarik

1. Orchard has now 3 new shopping mall: Orchard Central, Sommerset 313 and ION. One of the mall - 313 tu kot had carpeting all over. Apa ke gila.. satu keje pulak asyik nak kena vacuum aje. Nanti lama-lama carpet tu jadi busuk. Orchard Central pulak was this artsy weird place with a alfresco dining at 8th floor. We went there to eat Ben and Jerry and takpe ke... memalukan diri posing dalam Ben and Jerry. From it's balcony, you can see the whole Orchard Road and what not. Best jugak. Then we discover that there a nice restaurant selling lunch set for SGD8++ siap ada air segala. Apa lagi.. makan dulu.

2. Lights along Orchard. See for yourself

3. I found 500 Days of Summer and Glee soundtrack. Yipee

4. We ride buses! Ok selalu naik LRT or MRT aje kat sana. But dah bosan, so we study the bus routes pulak. Skang sudah tahu macam mana nak naik bus from Bugis to Orchard. Also know how to get to Orchard to Mustafa via bus. As usual jakun ambik gambar dalam bus. Just that the first time to Mustafa, we stopped too early, resulting a 1km footrace. Sampai Mustafa kaki dah tempang lagi.

5. Wak Pariaman - nasi padang ke nasi minang? Tapi nasi la... sedapnyaaaaa.... dah tu murah pulak tu. Aku order semua benda yang nampak kat kedai ni.. ok almost. Ingat dah kena SGD 30 ke... sekali tu SGD13 aje... The opposite shop, Sabar Menanti was a bit pricey. We had breakfast the other day there. Will definitely come back to Wak Pariaman.



6. Watch Sea Games footie final. Yang penting Malaysia menang. Yang penting lagi, aku tengok sambil berselimut dalam hotel... sambil makan murtabak. Priceless!


Lowlights

1. Changi airport - dah jadi macam puduraya. Terminal 1 is still under renovation so macam tak best. Plus, maybe it's peak season.. punya ramai. Tapi paling tak tahan geng-geng Bollywood yang macam alien investation. Pening sial. Dah la macam unruly bunch. Tak pedulik trolly depa blocking ke... duduk tengah jalan ke. Aku practically terpaksa tendang trolly depa supaya ke tepi. Dah jadi macam barbaric pulak. Paling tak tahan... masa nak queue kat imigration. We saw one lane was empty.. while the next lane had this family of four. So..ok la no rush... tetiba.. baru je nak approach line kuning tu.. head of the family notice that our lane was empty.. and quickly rush in front of us, almost knocking my sister down... pastu, ni line of the year " COME ON EVERYBODYYYY.. OVER HERE..". Pastu ramai-ramai pulak kerumun officer tu. Kitaorang macam terkena stun gun kejap. Eh, what just happen? Tak kuasa nak layan... pergi je la lane lain. We arrived at the airport like 4 hours early... semata ingat nak shopping... tapi sebab tempat tu dah jadi macam apa je.. terus takde mood. Dah tu flight delay lagi. Yeayyyy.

2. LCCT - dah sampai Malaysia pulak... LCCT macam pusat pemindahan banjir. Ramainya manusia. Padahal dah pukul 1 pagi. Lepas tu banyak pulak flight sampai around the time. Baggage handling dah memang macam tempat sembelih ayam... main campak aje semua benda. Just imagine... ada dekat 2 ribu orang... 4 ribu luggage.. agaknya orang yang angkat ada 4 aje... and it's already malam buta. Ingat larat ke? Semua orang hilang bag sudahnya. Kata baggage claim kat belt 4... tetiba bag kau kat belt no 1. Kat baggage claim for your flight kat belt 3.. sekali tengok kat belt tu.. flight lain... MADNESS. Memula ingat bag dah hilang... nasib ada. Orang kat lost and found tu.. dah lost of words dah.. tak terkata. Aku tengok ada satu adik ni dok beriya tolong tolakkan bag yang tersangkut kat conveyor belt tu.. bila la pulak tangan tersepit. Gang bollywood pulak.. dah biasa kot dengan benda-benda ni.. mesti nak dramatik lagi.... panjat and lompat-lompat pulak atas conveyor belt tu sambil kejar bag dia. Ya Allah Ya Rabbi Ya Tuhanku.. semoga service ditempat ni akan dipertingkatkan... Ammiinnn.

Dah flight malam... sampai after midnight, nak naik taxi pun dah double. Tapi aku hari tu mmg hati batu... aku nego macam sial dapat la RM20 dari KL Sentral to my place in Bandar Sri Permaisuri. Memula depa nak rm35... pastu tu 25... aku buat dono je.. cakap nak rm20. Last-last ok la.. tapi dia bawak macam sial.. agaknya if aku tercampak kuar dari taxi, suka dia. Kakak aku maki hamun aku secukup rasa... sebab cakap aku jahat, hidup tak berkat nanti orang taxi tu asyik maki aje... Apa-apa la.. janji dah sampai rumah :P Pasni tak nak dah naik last flight lagi.

With that I conclude trip for 2009. Here we come 2010...

Betnam Break (6-8 Nov 2009)

Tim Nguyet has been in Saigon for quite a while. She has invited us several times to stay over, and yet after the enthusiastic nods of yes, haram pun sorang tak menjelma. Finally, I said, ok I'm coming over and I have booked my flights. Bibah pun game and booked her flights also. Tim Nguyet, you better be at home.

As it turn out to be Tim Nguyet was in KL and will be flying back with us to Saigon (aka Ho Chin Minh city aka HCM ). Upon hearing that the two of us will be accompanying her to Saigon, her mum would like to join in as well. So the four of us boarded the flight on a Friday afternoon and Betnam, here I come!

We reached Saigon at night. I was surprised to see that the city was brightly lit. Bibah kata, tah-tah tu lampu halau tikus tengah sawah. Hahahah.. perhaps. It was dark so can't really tell if it's streetlight or lampu minyak tanah.

While taxing down the runway, heading towards our arrival gate, I was impressed to see how huge their new airport was. It looked very modern macam KLIA. Betapa la sombongnya diri ni, ingat negara sendiri aje yang hebat. Tak sedar tadi take off dari KL dari bus stand yang namanya LCCT. Seems that everyone is catching Malaysia in the rat race. I suppose I should travel more and see the world, biar terbukak sikit pandangan dunia ni. I need to have a talk with my money tree.

Anyhoo... back to Betnam. Bibah and I were the last one to clear off the immigrations. Memang our luck, berdiri la line mana pun.. semuanya lembab. Tim Nguyet had arrange for a driver to pick us up at the airport. Her Boss had assigned this dude to bring us around since Mummy Nguyet is around. Yipeee... Ms Nguyet, thank you for your first class hospitality. Dah la belanja makan, bawak jalan-jalan, tumpang rumah lagi.. :)

Right, there's a few things that I wanted to do in Betnam. Suffice to say, I got it all done except to go to Mekong Delta. But no regrets, I think I wouldn't be able to enjoy the tour as we're just staying for a short period in HCM. Perhaps next time. The 3 days there was fun, fun, fun.

The first one was to see Nguyet's house. Dia dok cerita pasal rumah dia tapi aku tak boleh nak imagine. Her house is 3 story high tapi staircase dia... macam staircase to hell! Sekarang baru kau tahu kenapa aku nak pindah dari rumah ni bak kata si Nguyet. Houses in HCM is narrow and build along even narrower snake like streets. Hers was previously an office. So instead of a front door, it had this automatic shutter instead that goes up and down, securing the house. Aku dok gelak aje tengok benda tu. The first floor was the living room and kitchen. 2 floor was entirely Nguyet's room. And on the 3 floor, there's balcony, 2 rooms and a toilet. Bibah and me slept in the room with slanted roof. Tetiba terasa macam cerita VC Andrews's Flower in the Attic plak. And Bibah had this imagination that there's a Vietnamese toyol equivalent hiding in the washing machine (that would jump out any minute now) outside on the balcony. Penat punya pasal, dalam takut kitaorang terlelap jugak.

The next one was to ride motorbike in Betnam. I have set my heart on this eversince I read 10 things to do in Ho Chin Minh. The guide suggested that I should ride the bike during rush hour. Baru thrill. Well, Ho Chin Minh has 4 million bikes on the road. Isn't it exciting? Nguyet asked, are you out of your mind? Kalau jatuh kena langgar dengan motor lain ... mati tau, after I told her for the 5th time.. nanti kau cakap Vietnam eh dengan brother motor tu... suruh pusing-pusing. Tak pun kau suruh dia hantar aku pi Ben Thanh market, nanti aku jumpa korang kat sana. Well, having witness how crazy these motorbikes are (they ruled the streets indeed), I settled for a 5 minute ride along a calm looking street from the War Remnants Musuem to the Parlimen building? Well it was a sort of an administrative building. Jalan tu memang takde motor sangat.. tapi celaka sebab semua motor-motor lain tau yang aku ni tourist.. saje je nak langgar-langgar. The mamat motor was very pleasant and cool. He can speak English. Very polite, everytime he wants to address me.. he would say.."Err sorry miss.." Yang aku tak tahan tu, aku siap cakap kat dia... ok.. slow slow.. want to take picture... eh sempat pulak buat peace sign. Check out below the shots taken by Nguyet

Next after reading about how people felt very depressed after vising the War Remnants Musuem, I was intrigued to see what's it all about. Ambik kau! Memang depressing pun. 10 minutes in there, jadi insaf kejap. Some pictures were showing the bodies that was shot dead, or burnt. They were childrens, women, old people. One picture was taken by a journalist of two brothers being shot. They looked like 10 year old boys. Then they have pictures of kids being born with deformities due to the toxic chemicals that we sprayed upon their villages in attempt to kill them. Apa ke gila? All this because they had an idea to become communist? Well some of them. But does that justify the shiploads of young men came from you know where and killed these innocent people? All in the name of freedom? A little comfort came when it seems the effect of the toxic chemicals affected the soldiers as well as they too had kids with deformities, as they were exposed to it during the war. Seriously, siapa yang bodoh? Of all the items on displayed, I like this one the best:

Well, bak kata Boss si Nguyet, next time don't go to the Museum because you will see loads to dead Vietnamese... go to Chuchi Tunnel, you'll see loads of American dead. Hahahahha... well, Chu Chi Tunnel is indeed part of my to do list. It's pronounced KhuChee.. bukan Cuci. Malu je aku dok sebut cuci.. cuci. I first discovered about the tunnel in Gary Trudeau cartoon called Doonesbury. If you want to read about ridiculed American politics, do give it a try. Memang kelakar bangat. (Check out here)

Back to the tunnel... I never knew what it was called, but understood that despite the modern American warfare in Vietnam.. they failed to smoke to Vietkongs out from their hidding place. The story goes that, the clever Vietkongs dug a network of tunnel spanning the whole area of ChuChi river and keep on popping eveywhere ambushing the troops. I find it funny that the guide told us that they actually crafted the sharpnel from the bombs that landed in their village, into boobytraps that killed the American. How ironic is that? We asked loads of questions, like kat mana depa berak, macam mana bau taik tu tak kill them, how did they dig out the tunnel, pakai apa, kenapa tunnel tu tak collapse, etc etc.. aku masih lagi ada soalan tak terjawab... but perhaps it's for next time. The guide brought us into one of the tunnel. According to him it has been widen for the tourits. It was far smaller originally. Yang celakanya... mamat tu tak warning pun nak masuk tunnel tu... dia just cakap.. come come.. this way... aku ingat nak tunjuk apa.. lama-lama makin ke dalam ke dalam... and gelap. Boleh la nak bongkok-bongkok sambil jalan macam orang rukuk tu... tapi sebab panas, sempit.. sakit badan. Aku jadi claustrophobic pulak. Si minah dua ekor tu sikit pun punya suka berposing-posing and holding people up. Ye la depa kecik molek.. ok je la nak jalan dalam tu. Aku one point rasa macam nak merangkak on my knees aje dah. Bila the guide ask... you want to go out here or go the long way. Aku sepantas kilat cakap... HERE! The long way is about 100 meters... the short one about 50 kot. Tapi rasa azabnya... macam 1km. Aku tak tau la macam mana orang tu semua boleh survive bertahun-tahun duduk dalam tu. Simply fascinating. Keluar aje dari tunnel tu... basah lencun baju berpeluh.. memang terbakar semua lemak. (Well utk aku... bukan la semua.. maybe if lalu lagi tunnel tu 10 kali hehehe) . At the end of the tour, they served ubi rebus makan dengan kelapa campur gula. Orang putih semua macam jamah hujung jari aje. Kitaorang makan..... macam makan KFC. Sedap menjilat jari. Check us out in the tunnel. Oh and the other picture with the 4 of us - motif: Nguyet bukak tutup lubang, aku terkejut tengok ada orang dalam lubang, Bibah gembira ada orang terjumpa dia yang terperangkap dalam lubang, Mummy Nguyet - pening kepala. That is actually the lubang to enter the tunnel in the olden days. Bontot aku sah-sah tak muat.

Another fun thing that we did.. which was unplanned was the cylo ride. At first, Mummy Nguyet aje naik sebab jauh nak jalan-jalan. Lepas tu apa lagi, 3 budak terjal ni sibuk la nak posing. Kau kayuh, aku tolak. Snap! Aku tolak, kau kayuh. Snap! Ok kau buat-buat pose penat. Snap! Ok ok.. toleh belakang Snap! Sudahnya satu HCM terpegun tengok kitaorang yang tengah buat-buat photoshoot tepi jalan. Pastu tu brother cyclo tu pergi panggil pulak member-member dia yang lain... so skang sorang satu naik cyclo. Berlawan-lawan dengan motor-motor. Hehehe... chill. Memang la kitaorang nak kena conned hari tu. Mula-mula kita tak nak naik yang lain-lain tu, tapi kata mamat tu don't worry bayar kat dia aje. Orang lain ni free. Pastu kitaorang cakap nak pergi Notre Dame Catherdral.... tapi macam jauh aje dia bawak. Kitaorang dah terasa dah memang nak kena la ni. Betul pun, bila dah sampai tempat tu.. dia mintak macam-macam la pulak. Kena la sembur satu round dengan Nguyet. The best part was, lepas dah balik Malaysia baru tahu yang tempat bukan Notre Dame Catherdral. Tah church apa la yang kitaorang pergi. Tapi tak kisah la.. janji it was fun and enjoyable.



Satu lagi berangan nak buat pedi and meni sebab Nguyet cerita murah. Betul-betul kat depan rumah dia pun ada. Tapi memang la dodgy sket. Tapi setakat nak ketip kuku aku and sental kaki aku yang aku pun tak sanggup nak sental.. apa la salahnya. So me and Bibah brave the odds and went to the place. Si Bibah.. tah apa ke gilanya, tiba-tiba tanya nak buat hair treatment ada ke. Aku cakap kat dia.. hey kang gugur pulak rambut kau. Tapi dia terus tak jadi sebab bila tengok minah tu guna limau yang sama nak kilatkan kuku aku, kilatkan kuku dia pulak. And sebelum tu limau tu macam dah digunakan untuk kilatkan 15 kaki yang lain aje. Kitaorang memang gelak aje sepanjang masa. Dah siap.. bayar.. ha RM4 sorang. Patut la limau pun share.Ni gambar artistik Bibah, try nak capture kitaorang dua orang.. tapi tak nampak plak minah yang tengal sental kaki tu:




And of course tidak lengkap la kehidupan jika tidak bershopping. Ben Thanh Market tu memang ada all sorts of trinkets and bags and what nots. Bag-bag kat sana memang cantik and murah. Tapi aku paling fascinated dengan baju kurung berbeaded yang super murah. Kedai yang kitaorang pergi tu, siap Raja Permaisuri Agung and Datin Seri Hasmah pun pernah shopping. Hebat ke tak hebat. Tapi yang tensen shopping kat sana, depa memang hati batu. Pastu selamba buat muka kalau tak puas hati. Aku banyak kali gagal nak bargain. Tapi last-last beli jugak... sebab murah.


Tapi.. (banyak pulak tapi), dalam banyak-banyak shopping episode, yang ni la yang paling lawak sekali. Lepas buat pedi and meni tu.. aku tengok aku still lagi ada a few hundred Dong. Memang nak habiskan sebab tukar balik kat Malaysia nanti rugi. So jalan-jalan la keliling rumah Nguyet, sekali terjumpa satu kedai ni... jual good imitation t-shirts. Ada polo la, lacoste la.. apa la. Aku sudah berkenan dengan satu t-shirt Paul Smith ni. Cukup la duit yang ada ni. Sekali tu si Bibah yang pandai yang bawak US20 aje tu.. tetiba nak membeli jugak. Tengok-tengok duit tak cukup, kedai tak accept plak credit card... since dia bersemangat jugak nak beli.. si Bibah pun balik rumah pinjam duit dengan Nguyet, nasib tak kena fire. Bila dia datang balik, tengok-tengok duit still tak cukup. Hahahahaha.. aku pun kata la.. it's ok, I'll pay in Malaysia ringgit sambil tunjuk duit RM50 depan boss kedai tu. Mamat tu kata.. ha ok.. so 2 t-shirt RM69. Aku kata.. I'll give you RM70... depa pun suka la.. sekali tu korek-korek semua kocek, bra, seluar dalam, dalam setokin... ya salam.... ada RM68 aje. Lain semua duit RM50. Mana pulak nak tukar. Ya rabbiii maluuuuuuunya. Dah la tadi kan main cakap nak bayar RM70. Aku pun bayar la the balance in Dong. Tapi memang kitaorang kena gelak dengan mamat-mamat kedai. Hai la Bibah, lain kali bawak duit banyak sket. Kita ni selalu disampuk hantu shopping.. US20 tak cukup cik kak oii.


Nguyet did suggest a trip from HCM to Hanoi pulak. Ha tah bila zaman la pulak tu nak pergi. Insya-allah, jika ada rezeki.

p/s: thank you jugak pada Mr Driver - Durian sebab penat melayan kitaorang drive ke sana sini. Also thank you for enduring all our attempts for intellectual conversation with you though you were tired and feel like swerving the car into a ditch. heheheh

Surreal Gourmet @ 7atenine

My sister won an invite to an afternoon with Bob Blumer. The surreal chef, in the toastmobile. Or toaster van. It's the guy that cooks in the van that looks like a toaster in the show called Surreal Gourmet. Ok you get what I mean. Travel and Living channel was doing this event as part of the new season launch for the show. We were to watch Bob cook and get to taste it afterwards. I like it already.

And... it's being held at 7atenine.. supposedly one of the places to be seen at in KL (err.. but not anymore now that I've been there :P) It's at the lobby of Kirana and Ascott across the street from KLCC.

We were welcome with goody bags. An apron and a book by Bob. We try to ooze cosmopolitan vibe while trying to perch our big ass on the small, yet high and wobbly bar stool. Sipping Strawberry Fanta no less. Sungguh tak sesuai untuk rancangan memasak, ini tempat. We were at the lower level of the club which was open air. Meaning, no aircond and it's 3 pm. Ok panas... nasib ada kipas... and the flowing soft drink (by now I've switched to Pepsi pulak. This is a sure fire for a series of cirit birit later). Mana si Bob ni.

Finally this DJ guy came out with his make-believe-toungue-twisting-American accent. He'll be the MC of the day. Then Bob appeared. Yeay. We can finally eat. Oh not yet... Bob is going to demo/cook while telling us about, what is in store in the episodes of the new season. He broke some sort of a record for flipping pancakes, he almost die while diving for sea urchin? or was it pearl? and... Ok I have short attention span when 1) it's hot and 2) i'm hungry. Bob keeps on facing one after another technical problem... minyak tak panas... kuali pulak panas sangat sampai macam nak terbakar... udang kecik sangat.... Aku pulak risau... eh cukup ke untuk kita semua nak makan ni.....

So finally... the dishes are ready. Cekodok udang rupa macam lolipop cucuk dalam nenas, ayam bungkus macam wantan yang buruk, ada something involving watermelon..and something bebola... tapi ada wasabi ke apatah. To everyone's horror.. the dishes were whisked away by a bunch of people who need to take photographs of it. I think for some magazine or newspaper article.. I saw it it again in the papers. It look far better than it taste. The one with the wasabi was deemed 'sedap-lagi-clorox'.

To everyone's relief, the waiters came out from kitchen, with trays of the dishes. Ha melantak time. However, we had to play cat and mouse pulak with the waiter because the one yang lalu depan kitaorang asyik bawak yang tak sedap aje.

Next it was authograph session with Bob. Oh right... the book. We can also have a poloroid taken with Bob. How fun. Of course we were still eating while everyone starting to queue... Finally it's our turn. My sister went first. I was trying to come up with something clever to tell him. He told us earlier that at the begining of his career as a chef... he did a lot of faking... (berlakon-berlakon pandai masak).. well he said, just fake it till you make it. Eh sounds like me at the office aje...hehehehhe (cume aku tak make it je lagi..)

Ok, my turn now... so while he's signing my book... (I can't believe this came out from my mouth).."So, Bob, how long have you been faking it?"..... After the words floated out of me... I suddenly realize I might have implied something sexual instead. Bloody hellllll..... but keep smiling....He took a look at me, take a deep breath and force a laugh. I laughed as well... and quickly pose for the photo. I thanked him... and walk out from the place never looking back.

Accept when I swipe a pen from the registration counter.

Hahahahahahahahhahaha

A trip Down Under - Part VI

Day 6 - final day

Our flight was in the afternoon so we didn't really do much today accept just walked around Potts Point. We had booked a van to pick us up to the airport. It goes around the city and picked people up from various hotels. We get to see Sydney one last minute. I even saw the staircase leading to the botanical garden. Memang jauh macam dari KLCC pergi Puduraya. Forget it. Another reason why we didn't really venture out was that we wanted to melantak one last time especially our leftovers.

So how was the food in Sydney? To me lousy. I dreamt of seafood galore.. tapi 1) tak mampu and 2) mostly ada alcohol. So it's all fish and chips and friend seafood. There's a lot of asian food restaurants even in Potts Point. Penang cafe ke apa tah.. tapi ada serve Bak Kut Teh. So malas la nak check out further. And there's even a Laksa house ke apa tah... very big kat QVB. Hebat. Tapi again serve pork, so macam mana nak makan. One time we tried Greek food, sebab kedai dia ada ayat Al-Quran, yakin boleh aje la halal. Makan falafel ke apa tah.. tapi rupa macam murtabak. Best jugak sebab lapar.

Anyway, we survived by eating Indian food hari-hari. Dia tulis situ halal... aku assume halal aje la. Hulamak... wa cakap lu. Dia punya curry memang power zass. Hari-hari la kitaorang blasah Vindaloo la... Pakora la.... Lamb apa benda tah. Ada satu tu kari letak kacang pea aje (balik siap try kat Malaysia lagi). Sedap siut (I mean yang kat kedai India tu.. bukan yang aku masak). Makan dengan nasi.. Pastu kitaorang suka nak beli chicken wing dia. Then balik hotel, goreng telur plak. We also bought bread, tuna, butter, juice and patato parsley yang tinggal kena panas kan aje from Woolsworth. Nasib ayam tak halal... kalau tak roasted chicken la.. BBQ chicken semua aku blasah. Hari-hari la muka kitaorang kat kedai tu. India tu pun dah kenal kitaorang. Pastu breakfast, buat la scramble egg, makan yogurt yang murah and portion macam satu gayung. Tak habis pun semua tu... kitaorg tinggal aje kat dlm fridge kat hotel.

Naik flight plak makan memang mewah. Tak rugi naik MAS. Tak main la nasi lemak Pak Nasserr. Pergi makan chicken tah apa benda, siap ada bread pudding tu. Balik... macam tau-tau aje aku berdoa nak makan lamb... MAS serve lamb. Alhamdulillah. Akak siap mintak lagi. Steward tu bagi lagi satu tray. Ambik kau... memang flight tak penuh pun. Dah tu for breakfast siap ada cheese la.. chocolate la.. and yang aku paling suka siap ada bagi power bar. makan... makan lagi.

And while in Sydney, we have developed a love for hot chocolate. Especially hot chocolate kat Krispy Kreme (Tak sama pulak yang kat Malaysia ni) Krispy Kreme tu siap ada tanda halal lagi. Ha.. hari-hari lalu kat Krispy Kreme.. asyik la blasah donut and hot chocolate. Sia-sia aje jalan jauh hari-hari.

Finally we arrived in KL. Dah petang dah pun. All in all memang fun trip. Sampai 6 part aku tulis. Kalah cerpen nak masuk Dewan Remaja. Tulis ni rasa macam nak muntah, harap yang membaca tidak la muntah.

But the whole time we were there... satu je aku nyesal tak buat. Tak pergi Bondi Beach and memposerkan diri! (Ha yes... aku dengar. Ye ngaku Loser...capital L for loser.. whatever). Asyik shopping sampai tak sempat nak pi sana. Padahal just a few stop from our place (ceh.. tiba-tiba our place... dah dapat PR jugak nampaknya). We did go at night... tapi apa la yang ada malam buta. I wonder... if pergi sana nak pakai apa. Kang aku pakai jeans and t-shirt dah macam orang Arqam aje in the midst of topless and skimpy clothed people. Tak menghormati majlis la pulak tak?

Alasannnnn......

Finally, I love this add at a bus stop. I just wish I can do it over and over again.
And I wish people get to see Sydney as well. People are very nice and friendly (read: not paranoid as some other continent) and the weather is brilliant.



Shall I return? If ada rezeki, suka aje. Tapi tak tau la apa yang aku nak buat lagi kat sana...except pi makan Indian food and naik ferry keliling sydney and see Bondi Beach in broad day light. Or maybe whale watching or visit the fisherman market... hmmmmmm Visa expired April 2010.... hmmmmmmm

A trip Down Under - Part V

Day 5

Malam semalam sebenarnya we went out to Darling Harbour lagi. Konon nak tengok fireworks. Fireworks ke mana kita tah ke mana. Tawaf satu round sudah gagal. Pastu hujan pulak. Tak pasal-pasal kena naik cab balik. Boleh aje nak naik train.. saje je ngada tak nak jalan jauh.. and basah kuyup.

So today we have booked ourselves on a tour to Blue Mountain. The mountain looks blue when the sun shines on it.. or was it due to kuprum or sulfat deposits on it. Akak kurang periksa sebab masa tourguide tu cakap.. aku dah macam ngantuk lite-lite. Hmm.. apa nama tourguide tu pun kan? Was it John or Mike? Let's call him John..(err ke Dave?). John picked us up in front of the hotel. In our group, there 2 bloke (possibly gay) from Hong Kong? ke Singapore. A mom and daughther from Taiwan (or was it they were from Hong Kong?), a family or maybe friends of 4 from tah German ke Tukistan ke mana tah. A couple from NZ.. who has a son called Jeremy. I heard them talking to their camcorder. A Japanese lady. Maybe another couple. And cik Kiah dan Cik Temah dari Malaysia (kitaorg la tu).

The ride outside the city takes about 2 hours or so. But first stop is the Olympic Park (again!). John explained a tthing or two about the place and we did take a couple of shots this time around. and we learned something, they have engraved all the names of the volunteers for the Olympic games on the steel poles outside of the stadium. How cool is that. Also in the picture below is our tour bus/van.


After that off to Blue Mountain. John mentioned that if he has Asian in his group, they are a quite bunch and rarely ask question nor pay attention to his driving. If he had Americans or Europeans, they would check his every steps, left or right turning. Ha betul pun.. the bunch of us Asian terus membuta. Tau-tau dah sampai... but wait, it's not Blue Mountain yet.

We stopped at another wildlife park run by the locals. It's called Featherdale Wildlife Park. Betul-betul belakang-belakang rumah orang. Macam bayangkan Setapak Garden, tetiba ada zoo kat sebelah kedai dobi. Aku tengok dingo cage tu macam bordering dengan satu rumah ni. Agaknya malam-malam dia campak leftover masuk dalam cage dingo tu. This time, we can get up close and personal with the animals. Nak pegang segala Koala, Kangaroo and other unidentified binatang semua boleh. Taik-taik semua bertaburan sedia untuk dipijak oleh orang ramai.In fact aku rasa some of taik kangaroo terlekat kat kasut aku sampai Malaysia tak tanggal. Haram bejad' betul. Tempat tu nice la cuma 1) busuk 2) aku memang tak minat dengan binatang-binatang ni. Jalan cepat-cepat sebab nak masuk gift shop. Macam nampak light at the end of the tunnel. Tengok la gambar-gambar kitaorang yang cuba nak berlakon jadi animal lover ni.



After that baru la pergi Blue Mountain. We had lunch kat situ. Kitaorang makan fish n chips la, apa lagi. First stop at Blue Mountain is a place call 3 sisters. Konon 3 sisters ni kena sumpah ke bapak dia sumpah supaya ada orang jahat tak boleh kidnap depa. Tapi the thing that was used to turn them into stone was lost forever, so the dad cannot changed them back to human form. Ye la. Apa-apa hal posing dulu.



Then there's a few ride attraction at Blue Mountain. You can go the steepest railway in the world, go on the Scenic tour macam cable car across the valley and climb back up with another cable car. So first stop is the Scenic Skyway. Best la sebab sampai tengah-tengah tu, glass floor dia, dia hilangkan tinted so that nampak macam gayat kita diri atas a very deep valley.



Dah sampai seberang, we got on Katoomba Scenic Railway. Mula-mula aku macam confident gila, tapi pastu hampeh. As usual, kakak aku nak duduk depan sekali. Sorry la ye Kiah.. kau nak suruh aku muntah awal-awal lagi ni? Bila nak start siap ada lagu Indiana Jones theme lagi. Celaka aje. Memang steep gila. Almost 47 degrees... ke brp degree tah. Aku mula-mula pegang kat jaring-jaring tepi tu... tapi sakit pulak bila lalu kat celah-celah daun-daun. Last-last tutup mata, sambil jerit panggil mak, atuk, nenek. Tak kurang jugak diselang selikan dengan makian-makian yang indah macam Sh*t, bloody hell.. F*ck.. kena la bapak Jeremy edit video dia. Bapak jeremy duduk depan aku. Heheheheh



Rupanya the railway was used to carry coal up the mountain. Next we get to go around the trail along the mountain, and tengok tempat korek arang batu and what not. As usual tak berminat. Mana gift shop ni? At the end of the trail, naik cable car lagi ke atas.. terus balik masuk gift shop. Suka aku concept ni.



After that, is the ride back to the city. We stopped by an ice cream shop at someone's house. Kononnya the best ice cream in the world. Ye la... aku pun beli la ice cream... dah sejuk makan lagi ice cream. Apakah.

Ohh rupanya our tour stopped at the ferry aje. We are going back via Ferry. Yippeee... we're taking the ferry back to Sydney via Parammata river. Masa tu dah nak malam, so it was very pretty to see the sun go down from the river. If anyone ask me, I'd say this is my favorite part of this holiday. Macam hebat gila. We get to see all this cool houses (read rumah-rumah orang kaya) by the river, semua ada boat kat luar rumah. And aparently the ferry is a pretty common transportation for these people. At one of the stops, a group of people dressed up (siap with evening gown apa segala) lepak aje naik ferry pergi Sydney. Akak impress you all! And of course kerana darjah kejakunan sangat tinggi, kitaorang duduk kat luar aje though ada seat kat dalam. Best boleh rasa the evening breeze. Nasib tak mabuk laut or demam sebab lepas tu sejuk gila. By the time we approach the Harbour, it's already dark but boy was the sight something else. Memang cantik view at nite. Apa lagi keluar camera, posing time. Time tu la pulak nak mampus bateri. So snap je la apa yang sempat. Check out muka orang jakun naik ferry. Happy gila.

A trip Down Under - Part IV

Day 4

This morning we wake up early so that we could finish up visiting Sydney Tower and Sydney Wildlife. So after the 10 minutes walk, short train ride, sampai la ke QVB. QVB - Queen Victoria Building is actually a building yang dah jadi shopping complex. Beneath it is a main train exchange, so mostly orang ramai kat sini. Almost everyday mesti kitaorang pergi sini sebab turun dari train. It's quite a quaint building (ceh kononnya), lift and toilet dia macam ala-ala cerita Harry Potter. Banyak jugak posing kitaorang kat sini. Toilet pun posing jugak. Yang kakak aku peace to the middle east kat bawah ni, sebenarnya jamban ok.



So back to Sydney Tower. We got up there finally. So we sat in and listen to their short documentary about Sydney, the Outback etc. After that, they ushered us into another room for a Virtual ride.. or a 3D show, with the moveable seats. I dreaded the moment I strapped into the seat. It starts to shake horribly and on we go... up and down some roller coasters, onto a pirate ship, into a croc mouth, to the outback.. pendek kata to hell and back. Halfway aku dah pening nak muntah. So I just shut my eyes and pray that the ride would be over. Sakit je badan. After that onto the observation deck. Ala sebijik macam KL Tower, you can view the whole city from up there. Perhaps it should be nice.. tapi sebab aku dah nak muntah la kan. Muka pun macam tapai basi. And check out my top.. macam baju Randy Jackson tak? Hahahahah



After that, we went down and back to the Harbour sebab nak pergi Sydney Wildlife pulak. So now it's all about the birds, snakes, koala, kangaroo, lipan bara and what nots. Tersangat la tak inquisitivenya. Anak mat salleh semua goes like.. "Daddy what's that.. why is it yellow.. it's on a branch Daddy"..and aku goes like... hhmmm tikus..tikus lagi... biawak..biawakkk... biawak pasir..ho hum... ular...yucks.. ular... yucks lagi... kangaroo...oh yang tu tido... koala... ha interesting sket...eh ada lagi biawak.. bosannya.. insects... oh my why even bother.. Dah siap. Tengok la muka-muka gagal kitaorang kat situ.



Then we decided to go to Paddy's Market. Oh kena jalan nampaknya. Sebab supposedly dekat. Demi untuk membeli belah aku tabahkan jua diri. As it happen, while we were there, Darling Harbour was having it's 21st year celebration. It used to be a very old harbour with fish and metal factories. Dank and dirty. Ok la.. I'm not sure what it was like..I just made that up. But they did a great job at reclaming the area.. so now it's so happening that all the mat Rempits all over Sydney would want to be seen here. For the celebration, there were loads of streets performer busking out along the way that day. Aku sangat tertarik with these group of folks on stilts, wearing 70s clothes and boogying to disco . Akak pose pulak dengan depa. Tak tau kenapa aku macam terencat nak pegang tangan sambil posing bergambar. I wanted to do the Saturday Nite Fever pose actually... hmmm.



Then we reached Paddy's Market. Hulamak. It's fun. Nyesal tak datang sini awal-awal. They even have factory outlet, tapi aku kata dah la.. dah cukup kopak dah kita. The market is full of knick knacks... from bulu kambing to t-shirts to pure honey. It's a great place to buy souveniers. One thing good is that they have really decent souveniers at a decent price. Apa lagi.. memang rambang mata. Aku lagi sikit nak beli old school wooden puppets. Kat kedai ni la terjumpa ada akak ni anak beranak. Memang nampak orang Malaysia. Mana tau kot-kot kenal. Bila tanya, akak dari mana kak...akak tu dengan poyo kuasa 3 juta kata, "Akak dari Perth". Ha? Aku ingat nak kata... akak dari Parit Haji Kosai ke... ambooi kak.. baru dua hari duduk Perth dah dapat PR ke. Gila kerek. Aku sebab dah malu... cepat-cepat blah... sambil muttering under my breath... ohhhh saya dari Parit Semato.

Pi rah mabuk kau. Balik rumah makan belacan jugak.

A trip Down Under - Part III

Day 3

The third day was full of activities as we get the hang of the transport system. Attempts to go to Birkenhead Point finally become fruitful. We went back to the quay in attempt to board the ferry but only to discover that they don't have services to go to Birkenhead Point over the weekend. Hek ele.. so we thought let's try the bus pulak. We crossed the steet and studied the bus numbers. Alas... we found one that will be going that way. Once we boarded it, we told the driver that we wanted to go to Birkenhead Point. He said, no worries he will let us know once we get there. Sweet! Kalau kat KL, selamat jalan la kau. Soon, we saw Birkenhead Point again. The bus driver stopped us across the steet and told us to get down and follow the signage. Oh ada pun... tapi besar kertas A4 aje, siapa la nak nampak. Aparently Birkenhead Point is hidden behind a clusters of housing estate. Mana la nak tahu. We followed the yellow brick road and lo and behold our search for 3 days is finally over. True enough the place looks like an old kilang ikan, and has it own pier. Orang-orang kampung kat situ park their boat there I suppose. We shopped a bit and had lunch. A bit sebab tak la sebest kedai kat Outlet semalam tu.

After shopping, we took the bus again, and stopped at Circular Quay. Adalah menjadi cita-cita nak pergi tengok Museum of Contemporary Art. There's a show by this Japanese lady (which I can't remember the name). I don't really get her artsy farsty stuff. More of merepek meraban. Setakat susun bola-bola silver atas lantai, aku pun boleh. Tebuk-tebuk polisterin jadi bola kaler kuning hitam.. aku pun boleh. 30 minutes in there is sufficient to complete my arty curiosity so to speak. We chill out in the park outside in a feeble attempt to blend in like a local. Obviously not successful because the native prefer to wear drab black or grey colors, whereas us in a burst of colors macam iklan cat Par. Nampak sangat la tourist. Some folks were doing some circus acts outside. More opportunity to take pictures of the Sydney Opera House and the Bridge again. Ye la.. nanti orang kata tak sampai Sydney plak. Dari situ, we walked towards Pitt Street konon nak cari kedai-kedai branded.. sekali ternampak Apple Store plak. NICE. 3 floors of glass semata-mata full of gadgets and whatnots. Aku beli la AUD15 worth of iTunes card. Saje nak try nanti.

At night, we were bored and wanted to do something. So we decided that we wanted to visit the Sydney Aquarium by Darling Harbour. It was open till night. Rupanya ada package to visit the Wildlife (which is next door) and the Sydney Tower. Beli la pulak. Now we have to visit these places as well. But that's for tomorrow. Now back to the aquarium. Visiting it at night was well worth it, because there's not many people and it's downright spooky. Ok, some of the fishes or crocodiles are in the normal aquariums. However, the sharks enclosure is something else. We need to decesend deep below and into the tube like closure where sharks circling around. Biasa je kan, only that I realized, the 'tube' was connected via planks to the pier at the harbour. We are actually down below in the water and the sharks are swimming freely in the open water.. (or maybe there's some sort of enclosure far out.. entah la..). Just imagine tadi if tengah jalan kat plank tu.. tetiba tercebur masuk dalam air... dah kenyang dah shark tu makan. Or if tetiba the surrounding wall to terbuka... best la pulak shark tu berenang keliling harbour sambil makan angin. Aparently there are some lost sharks occasionally wanders into these part of the waters. Takutnya. Dah la malam tu macam hujan renyai-renyai.. and everytime orang lalu, the planks will creak. Serious macam cerita Jaws III ok. Me and my imagination. Masa dalam tube tu... aku saje je duduk dekat2 dengan these group of Japanese tourist. Walaupun annonying, at least depa-depa bising2 tu, kurang sket takut aku. Kot tube tu pecah... aku harap shark tu makan depa dulu. Heheh. Another highlight in the Aquarium was the Dugong. Hahahah... datang jauh-jauh posing maut dengan Dugong. Well, what can I say except that they look far conforting that the sharks. Nasib baik malam tu takde nightmare.

A trip Down Under - Part II

Day 2

Setelah kegagalan semalam mencari Birkenhead Point, we wake up early determine to find the ferry to the place. So we took the train to Circular Quay. From the train platform, you can get a good view of Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House. Sibuk ambik gambar, sampai camera dah habis batery pulak. Kena bebel lagi.

We got down to the pier and found that there's only 2 Ferries going to Birkenhead Point one at 8 am which we have missed and the other at 4pm. Apakah? We're sure that the place will close around 6, if dapat pergi 1 hour aje.. mana cukup. But before that jom memposer kat depan Sydney Opera House. Aku sibuk suruh kakak aku ambik gambar aku kat ferry2 tu with the background of the bridge, tapi dia takut sebab banyak sea gulls flying around. Turn aku pulak membebel-bebel. Eh tak ni dah masuk maki hamun... ha dah sampai jauh2 nak ambik gambar pun tak nak. B*B*.. semua dah kuar. Seronok jugak cakap melayu bila maki sebab orang taj paham. Tetiba akak terstop meroyan sebab ada minah mat salleh ni pun tengah meroyan jugak. Tah kenapa gaduh yang agak hebat jugak, so kitaorang cepat2 blah dari situ.



So since batery camera dah habis, we headed back to the hotel and makan. After that, dengan semangat jitu, we thought let's forget about Birkenhead Point for a bit and try to look for the outlet at Homebush instead. Khabar angin mengatakan bahawa tempat ini dekat dengan Olympic Park. Very near. Again Tipah tertipu lagi. Here's why. The place is called Homebush. There's a stop called Homebush, there's a stop called Olympic Park. We were hoping that it's a place somewhere in between that is near distance. So first we stopped at Homebush, only to discover it's in the middle of nowhere and no one on the platform knows the place. Aik, wujud ke tak tempat ni. So we decided let's get back on the train and go to Olympic Park, which we need to change train at Licombe. Ok 3 zaman pulak nak tunggu train yang pergi Limcombe stop at that station. All the train that has been wizzing pass, are express train. Aparently only homeless people stay there so the train rarely stops. Finally we got on a train. We sat in the same carriage as this homeless guy. We were afraid of each other but just sat quietly. Nevertheless, he saw me looking at the window and keep on muttering Olympic Park. So he told us that it's at the next stop, and the platform will be on the right side. So we got to the stop, change train. Aparently the Olympic Park station was built specially for the Olympic Games in 2000. Macam Bukit Jalil la gitu.

We got out at the Park. It looks exactly like Bukit Jalil....deserted. No bus, no taxi, no one. Well no one looked friendly enough for us to ask direction. So we walked a bit in hoping to find signage to the Outlet. Bak kata aku, Haram tidak ada. We sat on a bench looking the ANZ stadium (where the games was held) silently cursing our luck. Then we notice that there's some office blocked and a Novotel nearby and some taxis waiting. aha... we went to the cab driver and ask him to take us to Homebush. He grunted and said, "This is nearby. Just 10 minutes that way", pointing to a road straight ahead.

Nak tak nak, we begin our journey. If nightmare takde Visa was bad, this was far horrible. It's bloody far ok. 10 minutes naik kuda mungkin la. Jalan kaki was like 30minutes. It's like you stopped at Bukit Jalil Station, but the place is actually Astro visitor's entrance behind McDonalds/Petronas tepi highway tu. It's like turun kat Bukit Jalil, jalan depan apartment blocks tu, lalu depan akuatic center, sampai sekolah sukan bukit jalil, keluar ke jalan besar tu.. lalu depan Astro, jalan depan lagi sampai Petronas, pastu masuk dalam sampai kat Visitor's entrance. Or if context Melaka, jauhnya macam dari MMU, jalan sampai Jaya Jusco kat luar tu!! And exactly la macam jalan2 keliling Bukit Jalil.. 6 lane, highway all the way dengan lori dengan kereta laju2 lalu. And suddenly ada la dua ekor budak ni jalan kat pavement tepi tu in the middle of the hot sun! If this is not kerja gila, i don't know what is. We only met one soul in journey and she never heard of the place either. Kakak aku dah macam paranoid.. eh betul ke ni, betul ke.. nak pergi terus ke.. nak pergi terus ke.. (that is after 2 km walk). Aku senyap aje sebab 1) nak conserve energy 2) no way in hell I'm going to walk back sebab naik bukit 3) rasa macam nak maki hamun dia semankin memuncak sebab dia yang tak research bebtul. Akhirnya setelah sekian lama berjalan, tiba-tiba dia kata, eh aku dah nampak dah.. ha kat depan tu. Yang aku pulak dah delirious sebab lama sangat dalam matahari goes like, "ha mana? mana? tak nampak pun?" Ada kat depan tu. So we picked up our pace and bagaikan pencahayaan dari syurga, aku tetiba ternampak muka Harry Kewell dari celah-celah semak and the signage DFO - Direct Factory Outlet. Halleluyah!

Apa lagi, kami pun tidak lagi menoleh kebelakang. Tiba-tiba macam ada out of body experience. My soul has floated inside that started the assault in all the shops. Shopped till we dropped sampai gelap kat luar. There's Timberland,Converse, Nine West, Ralph Lauren and tah apa lagi outlets. We bought sunglasses, shoes, t-shirts, jackets, jeans and Subway Sandwich (sebab lapar). My favorite purchase is a pair of Timberland trainers and a hoodie in a color that I like very much. Sangat cool. Akak like. Rasa macam tetiba nak jadi sangat an outdoorsy person pulak. There's this one shop selling all sorts of cool looking t-shirt with cartooon characters. Aku nyesal plak tak beli hoodie ada gambar Sponge Bob sebesar alam. Boleh pakai kat office. Senang boss nak kenal. Hahahahah. The lady at the counter told us that there's a bus stop outside which we can take bus no 545 i think and it will stop at Strathfield station. Ooooo... this station is one stop before Licombe tadi. All smiley and happy we went back and I vow to tell the world that if you want to go to the outlet (which you should...), stop at Strathfield station and take the bus to the Outlet. Ok, the bus number might be wrong (sebab dah lama, x ingat), but you can ask :) (and you don't have to walk so far) . End of day 2.

p/s: siap check diary plak, bus from Strathfield is 525 to Homebush Outlet.

A trip to Down Under - Part I

Since I have only 5 days to blog about all the happenings in 2009, I better get cracking. I have been postponing to write about this trip, cause I thot I have so many things to write about it. But now, since this trip was way in April - May, semua sudah lupa. So here goes nothing...

Day 0

Arrived in KLIA way ahead of schedule. Wah too good to be true. Jarang benda ni berlaku. Selalunya dah terkejar nak check in and boarding ala cerita Home Alone. Dah berangan nak check in and do window shopping in all of the Airport luxury stores. Dengan semangat poyo yang waja, marched right to the check in Kiosk and slot in Pasport to check in. Wah hebat.. dah tak payah pergi counter. Suddenly, "Error. Please go to counter to check in" Hampeh with capital H.

Stepped up to the counter with still a high poyo spirit. Dah bersiap sedia nak melaser nak cakap Kiosk tu lain kali jangan letak kalau tak boleh guna. A quick check by the lovely girl behind the counter, our nightmare suddenly begin. Well, traveling with me memang dah biasa ada nightmare. Malas aje nak cerita. It's just that this is a mother of all nightmares. Jason vs Freddy kind of nightmare.

"Kak... akak takde visa nak pergi Sydney".. Sayyy whhhatttt? Oh NO! Flight lagi 2 jam. 2 jam. Macam mana ni orang kampung semua dah tahu nak pergi Ostolia ni.

"Eh, Commanwell country bukan tak payah buat Visa ke?" (tanya macam ala2 ada degree in Political Science, pastu dah keje dengan UN 5 tahun)

"Err tak.. cuma rakyat Australia and New Zealand aje yang tak payah Visa"

OH MY GOODNESS....camno ni...

"Err.. takpe.. akak pergi ticketing office kat floor bawah, diaorang boleh tolong buatkan Visa. Beg ni tinggal sini la dulu, tak payah susah2 bawak". Oh terima kasih adik ku yang baik lagi mulia disisi masyarakat. Note that I refered her earlier as lovely girl behind the counter (instead of the normal Biatch No 1 or Imbecil No 1). So off we go to the ticketing office. Kakak aku pun mula membebel-bebel secukup rasa dan rempah. Tu la kau.. tu la kau.. tu la kau. Haih, kalau tak, tak jadi cerita burung bayan (to quote my mum).

At the ticketing office, muka masih maintain cool. Bila adik jaga number tu tanya nak urusan apa. Cakap nak buat Visa. Bila dia check flight kitaorang muka dia memang terpancar 'Ha?Nak mampus? Flight lagi 2 jam baru nak buat visa? Sah-sah la kau tak dapat naik flight ni' - tapi dia maintain professional la. Ok ambik no and tunggu. and berdoa. If tak dapat fly, dah kira2 nak pergi Bali la ... pergi mana2 sebab dah set our mind nak pergi holiday dah. Nak naik jugak flight.. walaupun sampai Puchong. Waiting and hoping and praying like crazy. Apa tak nya.. dah pukul 8 malam, in Canberra it's already 10 pm. Sape pulak la yang keje nak telexkan Visa kitaorang ni.
Setelah macam 40 minute in agony, tiba-tiba datang cahaya ilahi bila namaku dipanggil. Yahooo... Visa gua sudah siap. Aik.. nama kakak aku tak panggil pulak lagi. Kena lagi maki hamun dengan dia... lepas 15 minute tu, nama dia plak. Alhamdulillah. Kena la bayar RM60. If RM100 pun aku bayar. No question ask.

Dapat la naik flight. We are 8 hours eh ke 7 hours away from Sydney. Naik je flight, in the spirit of Malaysia Boleh, semua orang nak tukar seat. Flight memang kosong. Boleh kalau nak tido satu baris sorang pun ok. Steward and Stewardess memang tabah betul. Semua layan dengan patience. Nak tukar duduk sama kawan. Nak tukar duduk row depan. Nak duduk dalam overhead compartment. Nak duduk atas food trolley. Semua boleh. Dah settle semua. Baru la senang hati semua orang. As soon as flight take off, konon la dah plan nak tengok movie apa, cerita apa, main game apa.. sekali lepas makan terus tido sampai esoknya. ZZzzzzzzzz...

Day 1

The picture above was taken from the airplane window. Daylight breaking across Sydney.. or somewhere in the middle of the ocean. In a short time, we landed in Sydney. The immigration check was breezy. We filled in the form and declared that we brought Maggi and what nots. The immigration dude, quickly call us to the counter. It was a delight because 1) we skipped the frickin long queue of the 'Nothing to declare' and 2) the immigration dude is cute guy who could be an extra in Neighbours called John.

John 'intterogated us' - "is this your bag?" "yes (silly)" "did you pack it yourself?" "of course (duhhh)" "you know what's in your bag?""yes (apa ke hal dia ni?)", then he rummaged thru our bags. I'm disappointed that he didn't even ask about the pack of Maggi Ayam. I was prepared to dazzle him with my expertise of it's ingredient (having consumed the miracle noodle since the age of 5). Ok, all done.

Welcome to Sydney. G'day! Cheers.

As I was pulling my bag to look for the train to the city, I wander why did he ask such questions. Then it dawn to me... oh right, in case he suddenly find drugs in my bag, I can't go around acting.. errr.. this is not my bag. I didn't put it there. I don't know how I put it there...

Right.. here's the train to the city. We need to take this train and stop at King's Cross and walk to our hotel in Potts Point. The name sound lovely. Already liking it. Only to discover, celaka there's so many lines and reading the train network is like deciphering Da Vinci's Code... in ancient sanskrit (not that I know modern Sanskrit any better). Finally after going up and down, hi and lo, we arrived at King's Cross. The hotel is a 10 minute walk from the station. Jangan tertipu bila dia kata 10 minute walk. Aparently mereka tak begitu paham dengan perumpamaan dekat sekakang kera.. sebab sebenarnya mereka maksudkan jauh nak mampus atau jauh bergenat kaki boleh patah. I shall give more examples shortly. Anyway, the walk was not that bad, it's just that we're not familiar with the place and tangan dah nak patah tarik bag aku (yang in it's previous life was a 1000 pound baby elephant)

But seriously, Potts Point is a lovely place. Maybe this is where the gay and the yuppies live in Sydney. It has loads of apartments and posh restaurants, intellectual looking bookshop, flower shop, streets lined with maple trees, and bakeries that is run by Australian Rachel Ray equivalents. But just down the road is Kings Cross full of bars and strip club. Who wouldn't want to live here.

So we checked into the hotel. It's small but at least it has everything. Oppoosite it is a supermarket - Woolworth. This hotel/apartment was recomended by my team mate who went to Sydney for his honeymoon. (Thanks dude!)

After menghilangkan penat bak kata orang Melayu, we are ready to do some shopping. So my sister had surf the net and decided we must check out the factory outlet called Birkenhead Point (supposedly by a river) and an outlet somewhere called Homebush. We checked with the guy at the reception. He suggested for us to check out Darling Harbour and go to Paddy's Market. According to him, it's not very far from our hotel. We can get to the harbour (where the Sydney Opera house is), by going straight... go down 'whatsisname staircase' and turn right...another walk, then another 'whatsisname staircase - just 100 steps', go thru the Botanical Garden... just 15 minutes and boom you're at the Harbour. Lovely walk he said. Lovely as in you may die in this journey, but if you die, you will die happy (note again of their understanding of dekat and jauh nak mampus compared to Malaysian. Benci aku). I just smiled and said oh we want to go to Birkenhead Point (besides he already had lost me at the first 'whatsisname' staircase). He was not really sure which bus that will stop at the place, but after consulting his map, he gave us the alleged bus number and printed a copy of the map for us. How nice.

Off we went. We took the train again and stop at QVB. And walked outside to find our bearing. It started to rain. Cis. We stood at the corner of whatsisname and whatsisname street,and (as a Kelantanese might say) we waited waited, but the bus dideng come. Akak sudah mahu meroyan. Tanya semua orang, semua orang tak tahu. Kakak aku pulak sudah melakonkan watak Stamford Raffle nak berdiri terpacak dalam hujan tapi tak nak bertanya. Akhirnya.. we decided that we should grab a bite and clear our minds. After makan, we walked the road, ke atas.. ke bawah.. haram pun takde bas no brp tah tu lalu. So we walked all over the place Someone said we should go to Circular Quay coz that's where all the buses will stop. But after walking like eons, we decided to take whatever bus number because we're tired walking. The bus went on the Harbour Bridge. Ha jangan marah, dah naik pun aku Harbour Bridge. Suddenly we were scared coz we don't know where we're going, so we got off the next stop which is at a train station. Asked the folks at the station how to get to Birkenhead Point, they said you have to take the ferry. We were puzzled. Took the train to go back to QVB. The train went on the Harbour Bridge as well. Ha 2 kali aku naik Harbour Bridge. Stopped at QVB and went out another exit and suddenly find ourselves, on a street that has a bus stop which has a bus that we were looking for. Ya rabbi dah dekat 2 jam pusing area ni macam orang gila. So we waited with a throng of school kids. Seronok pulak tengok uniform depa yang cool. The bus came, we were tired yet happy. Finally.

About 10 minutes on the bus, we finally saw Birkenhead Point on our right. Ok, so now we just need to wait for the bus to make a right turn then we will stop. Ho Ho Ho. The bus went straight. So we thought.. ok maybe it will double back and go on the other side of the road. Ho Ho Ho lagi. It went straight for the next 1 hour and suddenly we find ourselves in Paramatta. It's like, you want to go to Petaling Street but you ended up in Westport in Klang. We are trully, madly, deeply - LOST. Well, I do enjoy the ride... get to see their houses, school, a few universities but right.. what the hell are we going to do now? Luckily the last stop was at the Paramatta train station. So we boarded the train again back to Sydney. Nasib beli all day pass. Macam-macam jenis train dah naik hari ni. Yang 3 tingkat, yang 2 tingat, yang buruk, yang ada toilet, semua aku dah naik. Sudahnya, first day, satu hapak pun tak buat kecuali jalan-jalan naik train and bus keliling Sydney suburb. Penatnya toksah cerita la. Tapi posing tetap posing dalam train nak balik Sydney. Balik terus tido. Esoknya pulak...(to be continued)

Rangkuman Sukan Minggu Ini

Rushed update. This is important (kononnya)


1. Soccer Front:

Manure was thrashed! Yippee. But Chelsea managed a draw only. Haih. What a killjoy.

Anyhoo, more importantly, Malaysia won gold in Sea Games Football. The long awaited Gold. 20 tahun katanya. Last time it was in 1989 in KL. I remember watching it... but can't remember who and how Malaysia won. Ye la .. masa tu baru 5 tahun.. mana nak ingat. Hahahah

Well, Malaysia beat Vietname 1-0 with an own goal? Sloppy goal or not, cheap shot or not, we won. Habis cerita! Well done boys. I hope you guys don't come back and once owning pieces of land, Datukship, Hondas, GTIs, BMWs... and totally forgot how to play footie.

I was in Singapore, watched the game live on RTM2... on the hotel bed, under the cover, while eating Murtabak dari Victory. Ha mmg victory pun :)

2. F1 front

I thot things are not going to be exciting at all next season. But Lo and Behold. I saw the news today and made me sat up. What? Petronas is sponsoring Mercedes GP? The winning Brawn GP team? The winning Brawn GP team with Ross Brawn as the team's principal? Even more interesting, Michael Schumacher has signed up as their driver. If this is not a winning recipe, I don't know what is. This will be like Ferarri days... minus the scarlett prancing horse that is. More rumors miling... maybe Heidfeld will get the 2nd driver's seat (or maybe Kubica or Nico Rosberg). Oh my... suddenly I feel like purchasing the F1 ticket now for I have a team to support. Hehehe... new merchandise to be bought - Mercedes GP Petronas FI team. (It's official. Check out their website)

But wait a second... the plot thickens. Apa hal pulak with Malaysia One Malaysia's F1 team with Lotus? Why the heck Malaysia brand is not sponsoring a Malaysia team? Scandal. Shock. Confused. As a patrotic Malaysian who does not vote but pay taxes, I strongly believe that Malaysian brand should support Malaysian team. But then again, the other part of me is thinking, if you're gonna blow your money... at least put it somewhere that has a chance of winning. I wish team Lotus Malaysia F1 the very best. I do hope you prove me wrong. But jangan marah, next season I will be wearing Silver and Blue Turqoise or Green.. or what ever it is.

To Mr Button. Pi rah mabuk. I would like to let you know that I have thrown away your Button Up t-shirt as it has been stained and it's not removable. I have no remorse at all saying good bye to it. Or to you.

Good bye and Good Nite!

And the short of it...

Aha.. suddenly there's a lot of interesting news going on this week. So let's make it short

First up, Malaysian football team is in the Sea Games final, after beating Laos 3-1 in the semis. Tak sia-sia aku duduk rumah tengok. So how come they suddenly play better? Oh no wonder this is the under-23 squad. Tiada kuda tua dibenarkan main. Thank God! Did not recognize any of the players accept the poser twins of course. And another factor of Malaysian victory was that the striker twin is not in the squad anymore... heard he was sent home sbb sakit perut.. ke some nonsense reason. Thank God lagi! Aku serious rasa dia tak boleh harap.

We were sceptical thru out the match even though Malaysia was leading 1-0. We feel that Laos will pull a MU by scoring a very last minute goal. Dah siap dah membincangkan the headlines in the next day news. Among top picks:

1. Skuad Harimau Hilang Belang

2. So near yet so far

3. Harapan Musnah oleh Pengakosayo (or any of the Laos player's name)

4. Malaysia's Out (again)

5. Dissapointment!

Wuhuuu nasib menang. They will meet Betnam Boys in the finals. Perhaps we might still need the headlines after all... erk

Next, Women's badminton team won Gold! Yeay!!!! Men's team did not (despite having World No 1s) - Hampeh!

No tiga, the Golden globe nominees are out. As usual, I'm worried because I haven't seen most of the movies nominated....but I notice a few. And boy what a laugh!

Nominated for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy are 1) Hangover and 2) 500 Days of Summer. Hahahah most of the Yahoo readers are chosing Hangover. Hahahhaha. Pada sesiapa yang tak tengok lagi Hangover, please do so. And let me know if lepas tu terasa nak menyetan or rasa macam nak kena heart attack? and 500 Days of Summer.... heheheh which brings us to Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy nominees - Joseph Gordon-Levitt (for 500 days of Summer). The experts from the website picked him! Eventhough there's Robert Downey Jr iun the list. I'd really like to see him win... Joseph that is. Hahahahha.

And Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama, Colin Firth is nominated for

A Single Man, playing a Gay Man (of course). Sighhhhh...

And for the love of god, will you give Neil Patrick Harris the Globe already for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television! He's gay and yet he's playing such an asshole of a MCP with such flair! I like. And there's Glee nominated alongside 30 Rock and Entourage and the Office. I do hope they win pulak.

And yang paling penting sekali, setelah 7 hari mencari jawapan, setelah kena restore 2 kali, setelah mendownload 3 file dalam 3 malam, setelah tidak bayar satu sen pun - Ipode II ( Ipod Touchku) telah di upgrade ke firware 3.1.2.

IN YOUR FACE!

Skang mau main Katamari Lite. Yipeee

p/s: ada ke kat SG Wang nak charge RM60 utk upgrade or unlock? Extortion!

Timkai?

Timkai? Timkai? Timkai?

Why? Why? Why?

It started off with a boring night. I can't really sleep. So, I decided to dig out an iTunes gift card that I bought months ago on a trip to Sydney. After spending sometime googling addresses in Sydney, I'm now a registered user on iTunes who lives in Potts Point Sydney. 10 marks to me :)

So what shall I buy with my AUD15 gift card on iTunes Store now? Hmmm... aha.. saw Glee tv series. Bought the pilot for 2.69. Well worth it. Will hunt down for the DVD when in Penang next. What else... what else... aha, free games. Let the fun begins. Download download and download somemore. OMGGGGGGG!!! I Love Katamari Lite. FREE. I am in heaven. Cepattt sync to ipod.If this is good, I'm gonna spend 5.99 on the full version of Katamari from itunes. Sync completed. Aik? Apasal game tak sync pulak? arghhh stress. Nak main katamari tak sabar!

Bantuan diperlukan. "Google, google on the Net, what the hell is going on?" Google said 1) my ipod firware is way out of date being ipod touch 1st gen 2) there's a possibility that my jailbreaked 1st gen ipod touch might not even be compatibile if I upgrade to 3.0 firrware thus cannot play Katamari jugak arghhh 3) It will cost me 5.99 to upgarde to firware 3.0 (nanti tak cukup pulak duit nak beli Katamari full version ...grrrr) .. Right.. should I risk it? Should i upgrade and face the posibility that the currents apps on my ipod will be lost? Or hilang pulak file yang dah ada on my ipod? Or worst, my ipod got locked out and have to zapp everything out and reinstall?

Decision. Decision. Decision. Ok dah pukul 2 pagi. Tido dulu.

Next day consult lagi Tok Guru Google. OH MY HANDBAGS IN THE CLOSET! There's rumors that Apple will launch Ipod Touch - 4th Gen with ... (wait for it) CAMERA! Argghhhhhh!!!!!! Stress! What does this means? It means that now I have to surf again for mobile phone. Aik tak berkaitan. I've been meaning nak tukar phone.. of course always wanted an iPhone.. but since it's only on Maxis, i'd rather use telepon dari tin susu. I hate their crappy expensive charges. I sort of put a criteria that if I were to buy a new phone.. it must have a kick ass camera, with huge storage. Arghhh... now maybe I can just buy a simple phone and get the 4th Gen ipod touch instead? But I have also set my eyes on the 4Gb Ipod shuffle with remote volume and shuffle control earphones. Blerghh. The ipod touch 4th gen.. though rumored, i found some pictures... they come in so many colors. Hmm... 4th gen ipod comes with latest firware, can play Katamari... but how long do I have to wait? Kang dah tunggu berjanggut, beli, keluar pulak ipod touch 5th Gen with a build in mini Microwave.. boleh panaskan goreng pisang kat office?

PENING.

Dah 3 hari, masih tak boleh main Katamari and now with new headache, nak tunggu ipod touch 4th gen or get a new phone or get ipod shuffle 4gb.

SIGH.

Masalahnya takde duit. If ada pokok duit, bring it on Apple! You can produce as many generation of ipods and Macs you want, I will always have the money to buy them ALL. ALL... YOU HEAR ME! Muahahhaha *Evil laugh*

Ceh... I only hear Steve Jobs laughing back at me.

VHAVI.

Two less lonely people in the world...

And it's gonna be fine

Out of all the people in the world...

I just can't believe.... that I won free tickets to this concert!

Muahahahhahah... setelah kekecewaan di Konsert Awan Biru and the Beyonce-tak-nak-pakai-purdah did a no show, this concert - Air Supply Encore, restored my faith in good music and old school entertainment. This two granddad had much more spunk then the supposedly king of rock kapak malaysia. Ok let's not talk about that flop of a concert. Let's focus on this one.

Of course.. all great concert had to either be on a working night.. or on Sunday night. It's a challenge for those honest, hardworking people like me. (yes.. I hear your Ya Right?!) Hahaha.. Well, climbing up and down the frickin hill at night still is a challenge ok. So we decided that we shall take the bus, the sky lift and get a bus down again. A few frantic phone calls later, I found out that there's a last bus going down the hill at 10.30pm.. or was it 11.00pm. Hmm we thot the concert might finish at 11.30... so takpe la.. if we have to missed out a few songs.

At 5.30pm, we boarded the bus to Genting, together with a the throng of Bukit Clan and a few holiday goers. Very embarrasing as we were dressed as if we are going to climb mount Everest and yet the Bukit Clan are all in shorts and tank tops.. as if they are going to Patong Beach. And of course Bukit Clan already knew that no food or drinks are allowed on the bus, so we had to hide our Big Macs and Whopper Junior in our handbags. Celaka.. now handbag smell like meat.

We slept all the way to Genting. Happy days when discovered that there's a long queue going up. Had to queue with a now larger Bukit Clan. Yipppeee. When we reach the resort, we had to find our way to Arena's of Star. Bapak la jauhnya. Suddenly when all calories are burnt plus the cold wheather.. lapar la pulak. We ate at Merry Brown though the price was riddiculously expensive. I truly hate this place. Kota Keriangan apanya if ayam 2 ketul sampai RM12? Siapa yang riang?

Sigghhhh... now it's 8pm, the concert hall is still not yet opened. Rupanya, band tak siap sebab baru sampai dari Bangkok ke Manila ke Singapore tah tghhari tu. So atuk2 belum bangun tidur lagi agaknya. Finally when the doors open, kiasu level reached all time high. Bukit Clan's kiasu level lagi la tidak dapat nak dibantu. Semuanya tak reti nak beratur. Pantang tok nenek aku if orang cut queue depan aku. We manage to separate a couple who's holding hand who purposesly cut in front of us. We simply push our way thru.. and heard the boy friend said.. relax relax.. no need to push. Relax kepala otak nenek sebelah bapak tiri kau. If you don't know how to relax and not cut queue, don't expect me to relax as well ok. So belum2 lagi dah hangin. Haihh!

After waiting for 20-30 minutes, the lights grew dim and the concert starts. Yeaaaaa.....eh hold on, this is not Air Supply. It's some dude who sang 2 songs... one of which, My Way by Frank Sinatra. Layan je la.

And then.....

Now the night has gone
Now the night has gone away
Doesn't seem that long
We hardly had two words to say
Hold me in your arms for just another day
I promise this one will go slow
Oh, we have the right you know
We have the right you know


Don't say the morning's come
Don't say the morning's come, so soon
Must we end this way
When so much here is hard to lose
Love is everywhere I know it is
Such moments as this are too few
Oh, it's all up to you
It's all up to you


(Chorus) Here I am, the one that you love
Asking for another day
Understand, the one that you love
Loves you in so many ways


Tell me we can stay
Tell me we can stay, oh please
Those are the words to say
The only words I can believe
Hold me in your arms for just another day
I promise this one will go slow
Oh, we have the right you know
We have the right you know


(Chorus (2X))
The night has gone, a part of yesterday
I don't know what to say
I don't know what to say


AAAHHHHHHHHHHHAAHHHHHHHHH... they opened with my fav song!

The crowd went WILD. Aku jerit macam la nampak Brad Pitt bukak baju. The crowd was on their feet the whole time. Singing along with them. Satu lagu aje aku dah sakit tekak. When they came down from the stage and went walk about amongst the crowd... dari WILD dah jadi MADDNESS FRENZY plak. Ni la baru concert! They sang all of their hits. Sebijik macam karaoke.

We manage to stay till the end and still catch our bus. Though the driver bawak macam F1, belasah all the sharp corner masa turun bukit, akak tido nyenyak uols. Sedar-sedar dah sampai KL.

Rasa macam inspired nak karaoke session layan lagu Air Supply aje. Any takers?

p/s: esok tu aku tak MC eh... jangkaan meleset semua orang di office :)