Saturday, May 28, 2011

The (Mis) Adventure of Buying a Car

My first car was a sweet looking Kelisa. The experience of buying it was not sweet though. I believed my exact words that I screamed in the car showroom was "Mana xxxx? Dah mati ke apa?" I kid you not. Mak aku pulak due to my size is super worried that the car would flipped over if I drive too fast. Oh how I love to defy her :P


Anyhoo.. padan muka suka melawan cakap mak. Kelisa tu asyik la kena langgar till I got bored so I told myself.. lagi sekali kena langgar, I'm going to change it.Of course la kena langgar lagi! My next car is a dashing Savvy. I had a fair share of arguments with the car dealer as well. I did throw a nasty spell or two which revolves around the business will go bust. Which it did? Or did they just relocate :P? Anyway, the car handles like a dream. I drove it around the hell bend corners with a calm confident. That is until I burnt it to death. Well near death. It was not the same after that. Kesian dia.



So I say 2011, will be the year of a new ride for me. So which car?Choices choices choices. Macam banyak duit turun dari langit kan. I think I bore almost everyone with the argument of car choices. The endless trip to car dealership (heheh ni kakak aku dah rasa nak bunuh diri). Masalahnya takde yang rasa terpanggil nak beli. Yang menmanggil-manggil, tak mampu pulak nak beli.



The list goes down to City and Forte. The later had all the features that had me going. The stop/start button and 6 cd changers memang terbaek I would say. Tapinya not everything is perfect. Malas nak cakap apa yg membuat aku ganguan perasaan dengan kereta tu. Just one thing that bug me to the core. I went to a few dealership just to get a look and feel and there's this one particular one... had this particular dumbass as a salesperson. He had this smug Im-above-you-all look. Nevermind that he called my sister, 'mak akak'. Nevermind that he had this sinister smile that says I can't afford the car. Macam cibai. Well, guess what? Kau masa menyanyi dulu pun tak best ok. Perasan bagus!

Sorry for the emo sidetracked. Now back to the car. A friend suggested, if City why not Insight. Hmm I had a few qualms about the car, particularly how much will the batery cost later if needed to be replaced. But she did brought a point. It's a CBU car. Bila lagi nak merasa fully imported car, kan? Betul jugak. And so begin my
3rd adventure of buying a car.

Like I said, I had enough of sales people. So I seek my friend's help to get an order in. I told her, "aku nak bayar je duit and pi ambik kereta, heheh". So the plan was in motion. We were going to get the car from a dealership in Johor. I was pretty keen since the plat no would be JM*. Now the color. Nasib ada 4 variation aje. So that's 4 indecisive week. Kejap A, kejap B, kejap C. Arghhh right just pick and choose. All done, just wait for your car in a months time. Nice!

Allah tu Maha Berkuasa. Tiba-tiba, tsunami pulak kat Jepun. All car production was impacted. First it was delayed, and later on, it went grinding to a halt. My friend told me that the chances of getting the car is pretty slim if not delayed a few more months. I read in the forums and lo and behold, the head office of the company had a memo out asking that their dealerships around the country to stop taking orders all together. Chances are now not slim anymore, it was next to none. Alamak, takde mood dah nak tukar kereta.

The reason I wanted to change car was that my old car was due for some part changes. Particularly I had to change all four tyres. Since now the plan to change car dah out of the window, so I had to fix up my poor car. Ah, now it feels like brand new. I have good feeling about it.

Allah tu Maha Kaya. Setelah a few days I had my car fixed, I got a miscalled on my mobile. Sape ni. So I called it up out of curiosity.

"Saya Yati"
"Yati, mana?"
"Yati dari ..H****. Kat BP. Akak nak tak Insight?"
"Hah? Ada stock ke?"
"Ye ada stock?"
"Serious?"
"Serious..Nak tak?"

Oh darling... I so WANT it.

I forgot to mention, I also read in the forum that one should try their luck at smaller dealership, should they have surpluss of stock for the car. So I did that. I did call a few branch but have totally forgotten about it. I don't think that it would even be possible that one still have stock. People are waiting for their car since Dec.

It dawn to me, ye lah agaknya sebab sebelum ni ada niat-niat jahatkan tak nak tukar tayar semua. Once I did that only then God allow me to sell off the car and get a new one. Tak payah tunggu-tunggu pun. Orang call lagi tanya nak ke tak. Sighhh.

The next 7 days went by with buzzing car buying activity. If I think back, ada ke orang beli thru phone calls aje? Memang gila. Alhamdulillah everything went well. I had to bank in the money and scan and email the payment slip. Endless phone calls to the sales lady. One snag came to signing the loan documents. Tak kuasa la nak turun south to sign them. The lady punya determined suggested that we meet half way. She called me on Saturday in the am and a few hours after that, I met her at Restoran Jejambat Melaka tu. Tolonglah bagitau aku if you know anyone else who sign their loan agreement at A&W? Overlooking the PLUS highway. Hahahahah memang kerja gila!
I don't feel like tendering for a special registration number. Apa-apa la.. asal dpt JM* tu.

Aku memang tabik spring kat minah sales ni. She delivered as promised. She even arranged for my old car to be sold off to a 2ndhand car dealer. I went and picked up the car the next weekend after I signed the docs. Hujan la pulak. But she still patiently go thru all briefing about the car feature, sales, manual and insurance. Aku angguk-angguk je. Sebenarnya she had lost me at the Ipod USB cable in the car some 1 hour ago. Pastu siap belanja makan asam pedas yang sedap gila. Yang paling tak tahan, siap ada sessi ambik gambar pulak untuk penyerahan kunci. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. She said that she will send me the photos. I'm glad she hadn't!

So here's saying good bye to my old ride and welcoming a new one. Semoga semuanya OK.


Sunday, April 24, 2011

Getting around London

At first we were all about the underground. Tube ke sana sini. However, after a few days, we prefer the bus more.

Ya rabbi, the staircases around the underground station is BRUTAL! If you have luggage, it will be even tougher. We did come across a few that has escalators, but the rest....dream on. And sometimes, you feel like a rat goiing thru the maze of nook and corners to get to a different line. Bila dah penat, this is not exciting at all. My motto every time met with a staircase is DIG DEEP! Tah berapa kali la aku dig deep. Nasib tak patah kaki.

From the area that we stayed there's a lot of buses that goes to most of the London main attraction. I love it as we get to see the view and not stuck underground, and of course we can forgo the nasty staircases. However, unlike KL, the buses, though it's passing the whole stretch of the street, it will not stop at all the bus stops. So you will need to check one by one... which sometimes, before you know it you have trotted half a mile already!

A few tips though

1. We bought the daily pass after 8am, which is after peak hour. So it cost 6.60 rather than 8.20 during peak hour.

2. The daily pass works on the trains as well as the busses. Naik la sampai nak tergolek pun.

3. The cab is not that expensive, so if you have too much luggage, naik je la. Dari patah pinggang angkat bag naik tangga. The black cab may cost more, so you can also ask your hotel manager to call the local cab. Aka mcm taxi sapu. Just check the price first.

4. If there's any escalator, it's always hidden. If rasa nak cacat naik tangga tu, spend a few minutes looking around first.

Anyway, one of our memorable bus ride was from Stamford Bridge to Oxford Circus. We sat on the top deck and got a great view of everything. The bus went thru Chelsea and South Kensington area (kononnya apartments yang hip lagi happening). Dapat la berangan kejap.



The streets are packed with super cool cars such as this. Bila la nak drive kereta ni.



Then it passed the Victoria and Albert Museum (which I wanted to visit, but just didn't find the energy to..)and then it came to.. Harrods!



We didn't really plan this, so we just jumped down at the sight of the green (emerald) building. Harrods was every bit that people has been talking about. However, I suppose we were tired and the sight of thousands of people milling about in it, just don't do it for me. And we did went thru the food hall... there's a smell that just bothered me, so we skipped that as well. Note to travellers, never go here during weekends I suppose. It does have the same vibe as Sogo, during Aidilfitri sales.

We then, took the same numbered bus to continue our journey to Oxford Circus. Why are we looking so much forward to Oxford Circus? Well... it's not really about the lights and all... but we heard about this one shop called LilyWhites.

It's 6 stories of nothing but marked down sports item. Anything you want (well almost), they got it. Disebabkan nak separuh mati naik tangga kedai tu aje aku tak beli everything in sight. Is it really cheap? Boleh la... the main agenda was to look for running spike for my nephew. After the main agenda (which of course must be located on the 6th floor) is aquired, anything goes. Sudahnya... we ended up with a big bag of god knows what.

Opps sidetracked about shopping.

Right. Back on train and bus rides. Well, the train rides wasn't all that bad. One thing that I would tell anyone who would want to visit London, go and enjoy the architecture of the train stations. You know those 4 stations that is on the original Monopoly Board? Fenchurch Street, Liverpool Street, Marylebone and King’s Cross. Visit those if you have the chance and take a peek at how beautiful and quaint the buildings are. It's free and inspiring. Even some of the platforms inside the underground is pretty cool. Very Potteresque movie.

Unfortunately, I realized this all to late and only able to admire the view from far for a split second. Here's some of the shots that I managed to snap:

This one is taken while waiting for train at Paddington Underground.



This one is the outside of St Pancras Station. (The terminal for Eurostar).



Tapi I suppose, the one tube station that I really want to go was Warwick Avenue.



Why? Sebab saya suka lagu ini:

Warwick Avenue by Duffy

When I get to Warwick Avenue
Meet me by the entrance of the tube
We can talk things over a little time
Promise me you won't step out of line

When I get to Warwick Avenue
Please drop the past and be true
Don't think we're okay just because I'm here
You hurt me bad but I won't shed a tear

I'm leaving you for the last time, baby
You think you're loving but you don't love me
I've been confused, out of my mind lately
You think you're loving but I want to be free
Baby you've hurt me

When I get to Warwick Avenue
We'll spend an hour, but no more than two
Our only chance to speak once more
I showed you the answers, now here's the door

When I get to Warwick Avenue
I'll tell you baby that we're through

I'm leaving you for the last time, baby
You think you're loving but you don't love me
I've been confused, out of my mind lately
You think you're loving but you don't love me
I want to be free, baby, you've hurt me

All the days spent together, I wished for better
But I didn't want the train to come
Now it's departed, I'm broken-hearted
Seems like we never started

All those days spent together when I wished for better
And I didn't want the train to come! Oh, oh

You think you're loving but you don't love me
I want to be free, baby, you hurt me
You don't love me, I want to be free
Baby, you've hurt me

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Trip of a lifetime (London, Paris, Amsterdam) - March 2011

After much deliberation, finally we decided to go for it and book ourselves to Europe. To date the logistics into this trip is the craziest I have ever done. Everyday ada je new information (sumbangan kakakku dan forum rempit semalaya) and changes to our 'itenaries'.

This is not a holiday! It's short of a military operation to bring back Dumbo ok! Unfortunately, though the logistic is of monumental military war fare, the execution is of course not with precision. Mother of all trip of course comes with a mother of all klutz cop moment. Sighhh... I'll get to that if I have the energy.

Our trip begin with a 16 hour flight from KL to London. We took Emirates. So there's a few hours of transit in Dubai. Dapat la strech your legs and take a breather. That's the only positive thing that I can say about the flight. The good thing was when we are on the ground. Hahahah.

Everyone say that their flight is better than MAS. I shall reserve my 4 letter word come back to that. All I can say is that, alhamdulillah selamat pergi and balik.

Our journey begin at 02:10 am on Friday from KL and arrive at Heathrow London on Friday at 11:00 am. We spent the next 5 days in London. Visited most of the must see place and managed to squeeze in a tour of Stamford Bridge (Wheee), Windsor Castle, Oxford and Stonehenge. We stayed in a storage room in Sussex Garden near Paddington. I would recommend the area to anyone... but if you could go to another hotel. Go for it.

On Wednesday, we managed to book the cheapest fare out of London on the Eurostar... heading to Paris. I lobes the train rides. Far more comfortable and a lot more exciting than naik flight. Fare murah, of course la naik 2nd class coach. Bukan la mcm dalam cerita Tourist tu.. yang JD and AJ boleh dating2 berdua je sambil makan-makan. But still 2nd class coach tu pun dah best. Statement mengada la kan. Cuba suruh naik KTM Sinaran Pagi pergi let say Penang ke... sumpah mati hidup balik aku tak nak. (actually tak pernah pun naik keretapi.. hmm)

We booked ourselves into Holiday Villa (as in Holiday Villa Subang tu) Lafayette in Paris. Kepada semua Malaysian, stay here. Seriously only Malaysian can run the hospitality business. Dari kapal terbang, hotel, hinggalah ke rumah urut ah tong. Malaysia Boleh! The hotel may not be a 6 star hotel, tapi the location, the service, the room.. memang puas ati. It's near Gare du Nord (the train station that you arrived from London) as well as Metro Cadet. And ada banyak halal food around and a McD and supermarket around the corner.

We were in Paris for the next 4 days. We went to Amsterdam for 1 day from Paris. Naik train lagi. Thalys pulak. Train ni lagi best dari Eurostar. Amsterdam is a bit chaotic to my taste. Paris is a bit more cheerful kot. My head sometimes still rings with Bonjour Madame... Bonjour Madame.. Bonsoir..Mercii Mercii... Au revoir. Ye statment mengada.

We flew back to KL, on Sunday night the following week. After 9 days in Europe, we have to say au revoir :( Again transit in Dubai.Sempat shopping lagi tu. Flight semuanya penuh aje. Suka betul orang naik airline ni.

Arrived savely in KL, on Monday at 9.00pm! With 4 circus troop equivalent luggage ... and more than 2000 photos in our camera (yang aku pun x larat nak tengok), coats that we have to send for dry cleaning and may not be used again (hopefully not ;P). The next two weeks, jetlag tak hengat. A few times, I sneak a few naps at the office sebab mata dah kalah mat gian, langsung tak boleh nak bukak. One time, I think I fell asleep behind the wheel at 4.30pm. Nasib selamat sampai rumah.

Hopefully, dimurahkan rezeki so that there will be another Europe excursion to come. Amin.

There's a lot of photos that I like from the trip. Almaklum sudah hangkut DSLR pergi sana. This one will always remind me of the nice train ride across Europe. Bebila rajin, I shall write about the places and things that we do while we are there.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Talented, gifted...(fulamak) Malaysian!

It started of one day, when I heard this catchy song on the radio. As usual, when we really wanted to know who sang the song, the program will cut into commercial. It happened again a few days after that.

Ini sudah tidak boleh jadi. I NEED TO KNOW WHO SANG THIS SONG. So begin my 3 day quest on the net. Usually G88gle is very kind to me. I could get all the info that I wanted within a few minutes. But this time, gagal. Ini menyebabkan saya menjadi lebih bersemangat lagi. All my lucky guesses, bombed. This is not D**fy, nor Ad3l3, nor P1x13 lott, nor Bey0nc3. No. No.

I can't remember exactly how I managed to track this down. But I suppose I poured every single inch of the radio's website to find their playlist for the month. All I can remember was that the trail brought me to a lot of blogs writing about this new Malaysian singer, who's name I have never heard before.

Malaysian. This song is barangan buatan Malaysia. OMG. I couldn't be more thrilled!

I spend the whole night reading about the singer. Downloading the songs. Watched all the video's of her on Utube. Added her on FB. Memang blown away! Rupanya she was all over the music circuit last year, in fact a whole lot years before. She had performed at F1 events, Sunbrust (that I actually went to), plenty of live gigs in KL (if they still call it that these days). She opened for Michael Buble and Babyface, for goodness sake! How could I miss all these before? (macam la aku Who cares. Good thing is, her first album is finally out. I will definitely get it (or adakah kawan-kawan saya yang baik ati nak ati nak belikan as a birthday present :P)

True that her songs may not be many Malaysian's cup of tea, tapi kata nak jadi world. And there were a lot of noise around who her father is, so that is why she could pull something like this. Whatever la. Ada ramai orang yang bapak dia have a lot of resources jugak, takde pulak anaknya produce something that I like. Ada jugak mangkuk ayun mana yang post a lot of negativities on the her first video clip. Bergaduh pulak berpage2.Sighh. Whatever lagi. I'm all about good music, especially if it's from a Malaysian.

Presenting Najwa - who I hope will keep on writing and performing crazy good songs like this one:



Got To Go – Najwa

This time I'm gonna live my life
I ain't no stepford wife
No I ain't perfect
Gonna find somebody who's worth it
And no you ain't that person
Coz i caught you constantly flirtin'
With my best friend

So I guess I'll say goodbye
I'll find me another guy

Why (why why why)
You always makin' me
Cry (cry cry cry)
No I can't stand it
No you can't be my man
It don't matter who you are,
Even if you were a star
You've got to go
(Go go go go go go)

Read my lips I'm leavin'
And no no I ain't teasin'
This time it's for real
Gotta find you another girl
Coz this one sure ain't stayin
By the time you finish what you're sayin'
I'll be gone

Monday, April 11, 2011

Me and Ms Jun

Hehehe... that's what I heard when Michael Buble performed his encore with Me and Mrs Jones.

To date, this is the most expensive concert tickets that I have ever seen in KL. Though that is the case, the place was packed. Kaya raya orang KL ni. By the time I wanted to purchase the tickets, tinggal tickets yang mahal gila. Itu pun selling fast! Nasib ada orang nak jual ticket. Dapat la tumpang sekaki pergi tengok with old classmates from Uni.

The evening was damped by a bit of rain, so that put a bit dent on all those yang kononnya nak dress up to the nine. I ditch my heels (as if..) and end up with rolled up jeans and selipar. Hahaha.

Arrived early, so managed to find a decent parking spot. Managed to brave the rain and climb the stairs and found our seats. Rupanya those that bought the tickets on the tier above us were having trouble because the roof was leaking! Tu dia, dah sessi bergaduh la pulak. Nasib our seats are not impacted.

I was looking forward to the opening act. Najwa! She was one of the reason that I got to go, go, go to the concert. Will blog separately about this :). And then right on the spot, out came Michael.

He is very talented and down right entertaining. Memang boleh cair la dengar suara dia. 2 hours went by without me realising it.

I was a bit disappointed when I saw his setlist. He's not going to sing Quando Quando Quando... but he made that up with Me and Mrs Jones. Adoiii.. tak dapek acik menolong do. Memang top notch bukak baju award moment! (Actually a lady somewhere in front row, did took off her blouse and threw it to him. Gila!). Here it is again.. Me and Ms Juuunnnn ... eh Mrs Jones :P

Me and Mrs Jones, we got a thing going on
We both know that it's wrong
But it's much too strong to let it go now

We meet ev'ry day at the same cafe
Six-thirty I know she'll be there
Holding hands, making all kinds of plans
While the jukebox plays our favorite song

Me and Mrs, Mrs Jones, Mrs Jones, Mrs Jones
We got a thing going on
We both know that it's wrong
But it's much too strong to let it go now

We gotta be extra careful
That we don't build our hopes too high
Cause she's got her own obligations and so do I
Me, me and Mrs, Mrs Jones, Mrs Jones, Mrs Jones

Well, it's time for us to be leaving
And it hurts so much, it hurts so much inside
And now she'll go her way, I'll go mine
But tomorrow we'll meet at the same place, the same time
Me and Mrs Jones, Mrs Jones, Mrs Jones


EB who was MB gf then, sang background vocal on this song. Sounds good actually.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Presenting Mr Darcy

The many wonderful characters of Colin Firth


My Fav - Jamie, in Love Actually


The Importance of Being Ernest

The jealous husband in English Patient


Mark Darcy - Barrister



But that's not the first time he plays a Mr Darcy. He was in Pride and Prejudice.

The beautifully made, Single Man. Nominated for an Oscar in 2010.

Not the only time he played a gay guy. Harry Bright in Mamma Mia.

And, to date, the most compelling character of all - King George VI in The King's Speech. An outstanding performance worthy of an award. All the very best for the Oscar



* Everyone should see The King's Speech. It gives a little insight of the history of the royal family. Fascinating!*

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Mixed Tape, anyone?

Have you seen one of these baby lately?



Well.. not since the birth of ipod, iphone and ipad, I suppose. Heck I have not seen a walkman or discman for a veryyyy long time. Untuk sesiapa yang tak tahu. Benda ni namanya Kaset. Tape. Cassette Tape. It rules sometime in the 80s and early 90s.

I had a great collection of mixed tapes coz I went a great length of getting em all right. Late night patiently waiting by the radio, to hit the Record button at the precise moment, so that the recording is just crisp. Since I live in Johor, I had the best of both world ie all the best Rock Melayu songs from Pilihan Bersama, as well as the latest from the pop charts on Top 40s on the Singapore radio.

Bloody hell it's hard work. I had to scan the newspaper to see what selection of songs will be aired on Pilihan Bersama and had to sit thru the ramblings of the DJs to wait for the song to start. Then I discovered something....

There was this shop in town that can do mixed tape for you. At the same price of a cassette masa tu. Around RM17. Lo and be hold. They can do any songs as long as they have the albums on their shelfs. A cassette could fit around 17 to 18 songs. I remember that I had C.I.N.T.A of XPDC on one side and Baby I Love Your Way by Big Mountain on the other. What a sic choice! Hahahahahahahaha.

These cassette was a great entertainment thru out my teenage years.Zaman sekolah dulu takde duit nak beli bateri selalu, so if nak rewind or foward the tape, kena selit pencil in the kaset and spin it with your hand. Hahahahha. Nak jimat bateri kononnya! I wish I know where they are now. What a treasure!

Anyhoo, the above picture is actally the cover of my iphone. Nice camourflage huh?



It did fool a lot of people. The best yet was after a few days after I use it to take picture at the office. My colleague came to me and said.. "Ohhh it's your phone. I thot it's a new type of camera". We laugh for a good minute. "I must have look stupid to you, holding a cassette like that". Hahahahahahah.

Here's to all of my mixed tape. This song is definitely on one of them (the original of course, not the Fat Boy Slim version). I just heard it on the radio and got me to start to reminise...sighhh

Brimful of Asha - Cornershop

There's dancing behind movie scenes
Behind the movie scenes - Sadi Rani
She's the one that keeps the dream alive,
From the morning, past the evening,
Till the end of the light
Brimful of Asha on the forty-five
Well, it's a brimful of Asha on the forty-five
Brimful of Asha on the forty-five
Well, it's a brimful of Asha on the forty-five
and singing illuminate the main streets and the cinema aisles
We don't care about no government warning
about that promotion of the simple life and the dams they are building

CHORUS
Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow,
everybody needs a bosom
Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow,
everybody needs a bosom
Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow,
everybody needs a bosom

Mine's on the forty-five
Mohammed Ruffi (forty-five)
Lata Mangeshka (forty-five)
solid state radio (forty-five)
ferguson mono (forty-five)
Mon public (forty-five)
Jacques Dutronc and the Bolan Boogies
the Heavy Hitters and the chi chi music
All Indian radio (forty-five)
two in ones (forty-five)
ovvo records (forty-five)
trojan records (forty-five)

CHORUS

CHORUS 2

7-7,000 piece orchestra set
everybody needs a bosom for a pillow mines on the RPM...


* What does this song mean? Read here