Monday....

While on the LRT, I was listening to 'All By Myself' by Celine Dion.

Then, I told myself that one of the things that I must do before I die is to watch Celine Dion live in concert.

Back from OBS :D

I recently came back from Outward Bound Malaysia Lumut. Yup, my employers sent us there for, according to them, 'development of personal leadership and building successful relationships and team synergy.' And they forgot to mention the dark tan and the numerous ant and mosquito bites as well.



Leaving the tan and bites aside, it was a really good experience for me. Of course, I had previously been to OBS a long time ago, but this time I was able to do most of the things they threw at us without much problems, unlike last time. (Yes, I was damn unfit a long time ago :P) Things had also changed in OBS; IMHO it had become more commercialised already. They had recently built new cement dorms with corporate sponsorship on each and every dorm, my employers included : /



But I think this was because it was a non-profit organisation, so every donation helps, lol. But I wasn't complaining; the living area was much more comfortable than the wooden dorms by the hills.


The weather was pretty nasty throughout; it was raining most of the time. It even rained while we were doing our orienteering event which made life really difficult cos we can't spot the checkpoints, so we got lost in the jungle. Luckily we found our way out a few hours later, so it wasn't really that bad. And nobody got bitten by leeches :D . The weather was worse while we were doing the whaler expedition. FYI, a whaler is a huge sampan that is powered by 8 people with oars, so rowing coordination is key.



But about a quarter way around Pangkor, the heavens poured its heart out and we had to be towed to the campsite. Many of us got seasick cos of choppy waves but we did mange to make it to the campsite within the 4 1/2 hours targeted :D So it was actually a blessing in disguise haha!! And sugar biscuits and Gardenia bread had never tasted that good before, especially when it was raining heavily and you can't cook anything!! :D

All in all, it was a pretty good experience for our group :P I did manage to achieve the targets that I had set for before the whole thing started, so I was pretty pleased with myself. Of course, I can never forget the group that had stuck with each other through thick and thin, making this a memorable outing for us and letting us get to know each other better. XD

A New Point in Life...

I start work on Thursday. :(

Did you know....

This is the Savage Garden that we all know about.



This is the Savage Garden that most of us don't know about.



Yes, Savage Garden was actually the name of a street behind the Tower of London. I came across it during one of my 'long morning walks' through the City, and was pretty amazed by it. Not the road, of course, but the huge Victorian buildings surrounding it and a park in the middle of it. Too bad I didn't get any pics of it, but I did get the street name of another 'interesting' name, to be revealed soon.... XD

P.S. I've read about the church by Byward Street, in the map above, saying that Samuel Pepys was actually on top of the pinnacle of this church during the Great Fire of London in 1666 and had documented the entire event from there. Interesting :P

First day at Office

Finally after all the wait!!

Today's my first day at my employer. Well, it was just a pre-briefing session; work officially starts after the Raya holidays. It was great to meet up with so many of the friends I met during the assessment center, it was more like a reunion rather than a introduce-yourself section!! Of course, I was a bit pai seh cos I never kept in touch with them since March, but I've lost their contacts whilst in London. This is another long, long story which I don't think I'll divulge to the world :P I also got to meet with new people that were gonna be my colleagues in the future. HR also told us that there was another briefing for another group this coming Friday, that a Harvard grad will be joining in. OMG!!!!

So while we were at it today, we also had to do a medical as well in a clinic opposite the office. OMG, the doctors and nurses were all so old that I think the total age of all of them added up is around 600, haha!!! And they performed, what I think, was probably the most extreme medical I have ever done!! The basic checkup ie blood pressure, urine and X-ray was done, but we also had to do a ECG and blood test as well. Basically what the electrocardiogram, ie. ECG for short, does is to test for your pulse to see if you are a normal human being or your heart feels like beating whenever it wants to beat...just kidding!!! But it's somewhere along the lines lah. They diagnosis involves sticking suction cups on your chest to test for your pulse and it left marks on it. Wahh, damn 7 ugly ler those marks haha!!! It looked like love marks!! (Note: friends told me that. I don't know how love marks look like. No, positively negative and ixnay on the knowledge of love marks :) )

By the time we went back to office, it was almost 1pm and raining heavily. We went to the cafeteria for lunch but everything was gone already and we didnt want to brave the rain, so we decided to continue with the briefing and finish it ASAP. Also, there were a few people that were fasting anyways, so might as well adjourn early since they also can't eat anything and just wasting time while we went and eat :P

Then we went through this whole stack of documents that we had to sign and all, and then HR discussed renumeration with us!! WE NOW HAVE A REVISION OF SALARY!!! Luckily the low initial salary didn't put me off this job,haha!! If you guys wanna know how much was the initial salary was, it was lower than an auditor in the Big 4, but now its higher than them :) and we also get a ton of benefits as well which wasn't fully disclosed in the briefing, but it was substantial. :)

Now onwards to the first day of work.

P.S. Off to Outward Bound Lumut soon...though it won't be as 'slaving' as the previous one. It seems that the most taxing one was rowing the wailer around Pangkor....hmm we'll see about that :P

Sirens!!!

One thing that is totally different in London than in KL is the noise. While KL is usually noised up by stupid mat rempits and ahbengs with their modified machines that comes with huge exhausts that you can put ur entire fist into, the one noise of London comes from this.



And this.



And this.



Anywhere you are in London, at any time, there will always be the sound of sirens blaring between time gaps of 5 minutes. While I find this commendable for treating every 999 call seriously and as an emergency, it also totally annoys me. If Oxford Street is not already busy enough with buses and the occasional cabs picking up and dropping up passengers, then comes the occasional squad car or ambulance, blaring their sirens and demanding everyones attention to move off the road. And they also drive on the opposite side of the road.

Statistics released early this year saying that squad cars are involved in 1 out of every 23 accidents in London. At the way they respond to emergencies, I;m just wondering who will be at the receiving end of the emergency call.

Making a few points clear

I've just finished watching 'Secret', or 不能說的秘密 just now, and I just want to let my thoughts out.


The girl damn cute weii.


Seriously, damn cute.



Damn kao 7 cute!!!



Taiwanese girls are the cutest, haha. Makes me proud to say that I'm half Taiwanese, but then again, I'm not a chick.

Btw, the movie was quite nice as well.

I think I pulled something....

I think I pulled a muscle during badminton Now the part of my back near the joint is hurting like mad. Dammit, and I even threw a few smashes yesterday, I think I aggravated it :(

Btw, I can cross something from my procrastination list off. I've just finished watching 'In the Mood for Love' on crunchyroll.

I've always wanted to watch this show cos it looked nice (Maggie Cheung in a cheongsam, and Tony Leung with his ngan-san that can lum every girl, including my gf's, that is) and, thats it.



And the show's not bad at all!! I thought it was just a work from the noob of a director who doesn't use scripts for his movies, but it's actually very good and the editing between each flashback is well sequentiated too.

Well, at least the show's better than the Korean food I had for dinner yesterday night.

Boredness + Lameness = Nonsense

I was talking to Jiajer online yesterday. Yes, during office hours. Now i want to join KPMG as well. XD

Anyways, I ffk him for a yumcha session on Thursday night cos I followed my parents to this residents association meeting that ended super late. The next day, he was bitching to me that only him and Andrew only went for nasi lemak ayam goreng and it felt like a date to him. Well, kudos to both of you, you guys make a wonderful couple XD

So he wanted a free meal and badminton to compensate for my ffk-ness. Of course I told him I am damn poor, but he said he din believe a word I said and reminded me of how much I will be earning when I work.

'Nola, not so much la. Government take some here, parents take some there, in the end end up with rm50 only la,' I told him. Of course, LSE grad wun believe me, so I broke down my expenses to him;

Government: Some Amount of money, dun ask me, I honestly dunno how much.
Parents: 30% of salary
Living Expenses: 20%? Maybe more
Personal Fund Manager: The rest of my salary that gives me only rm50

See?! I only got rm50 to spend!!! He should be buying me lunches and badminton instead!! XD


Okla, time to find 5 more full-time oddjobs to increase my spending money to rm70. Perhaps i should start a char kuey teow stall??

Drink for good health!!!

While I was in the UK, most of us basically drank tap water. It was free (fixed rate), it was clean (well, sort of. Cos now they use this special type of filter that filters impurities in the water)

And it was icy cold. But of course its cold!! Its the UK!! Which is why cold showers are not meant to be taken lightly in the UK.

The second drink found in the fridge are the beers!! Ok, I'm not a regular drinker, and I usually drink whenever I have friends over. But my friends are avid drinkers, which was probably why I drank so much too.

The 3rd is Coke Zero!!!



Coca-Cola claims that Coke Zero was a 'zero-calorie' drink, which was different from Diet Coke which was a 'zero-sugar' drink. Anyhow, there was a purported ad campaign from Coke about Coke Zero not being a 'zero-calorie' drink but rather a 'calorie-burning' drink!! That makes it healthier than water!! Apparently, Coke's rationale was that since Coke Zero tastes ssssssssssooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good, you would drink more, and when you drink more, you bend your arm towards your mouth, and thats exercising!! Coke claims that by doing this repetitively, you will lose 0.5 calories for every litre consumed this way. Great marketing strategy-lah.


Coke Zero was so good, that when Thean came over, he drank almost a bottle a day. His gf Hui Yuan can't complain; they WERE zero-calorie of course and with Coke's original taste, was Thean's dream drink. I think that when he left back for KL, he also had brought along with him 2 two litres of Coke Zero with him. Of course, that's just a myth....

And now, I have finally seen Coke Zero in the Malaysian supermarkets!!!



Note: RM3.29 a can. Think about it. Also, need I remind you about the Aspartame Scare thats currently going on. Yes, Coke Zero uses aspartame.

Best of Both Worlds...

I've been back in KL for almost a month now, and most of my friends, including my parents, had asked me 'So, which is better, London or KL?'

To tell you the truth, I'm torn between two worlds. First is KL.



KL is home, there's no denying that. Food paradise, with many types of food at affordable prices!! And most of the stuff is cheap as well. Well, not as cheap as what we wanted it to be, cos the average purchasing power of a Malaysian is, well, not high. Which is why we have Petaling Street!! Now that's something that London will never, ever, EVER, have.

For my HK friends, Petaling Street is what Mongkok is to HK. You get the gist of it.

Now we come to London.



London is THE multicultural city of the world, more so than New York and other countries that claim that they are the most multicultural in the world (including Malaysia). I mean, you can basically get all the AUTHENTIC types of food from all corners of the globe. However, it comes at a price, and a heavy one at that!! And no matter what they might say about London's transport system, it practically covers most of the parts within the M25, not like KL's pathetic RapidKL project that only covers a certain handful of the populated areas in KL. And the shopping is heaven-lah!!!



I can spend most of my day in the western side of Oxford Street (the eastern side basically sells crap) and the whole of Regent Street, and maybe covering Old Bond Street and New Bond Street if I could still stand. Anyways, you get the gist of it.

So, there are pros and cons of each country, and while I'm not gonna criticise on that; I'm just gonna mention which country has the upper hand in a bunch of categories...

1. Best Food - London
While this might come as a shock, I would prefer eating in London than in KL. It has practically every type of food cooked up in this world!! Basically, if you wanna eat Korean food, you go to a Korean restaurant where u'll be served by Korean waiters, has an authentic Korean atmosphere, and the chefs are all from Korea. On the other hand, in KL, most of the chefs are locals, and so can't capture the authentic taste of Korean food!! Same goes for all the other types of food. You even see Indonesians cooking your food in the food courts of Malaysian malls!!



2. Best shopping- London
It might be hella expensive, but nothing beats shopping in London during the winter and summer sales. Where can you get Gucci handbags at 50% off?? Or Zara shoes for less than 10 quid? London's definitely the place. Or if you STILL think that the sales in London are not really worth it, take a bus down to Bicester Village near Oxford where they have retail outlet stores there. And things are cheap!!! I got a lot of Ralph Lauren Polo T's for 10 quid each!! Unlike KL, the sales for these branded stuffs are only 10% max, so its not much of a saving for shopaholics. Boo to that.



3. Best living - KL
Cheap cheap cheap!! Much cheaper than London anyways. Tell the Londoners that you had a meal for Rm40 per person at a fancy Italian restaurant and they'll drool for it!! Living costs much much lower here, and we can afford to go out and have supper until 3am, unlike London where every shop closes at 12 at the latest. While clubbing is the London nightlife, yumcha sessions are definitely the in thing in KL

4. Best weather - KL
One season, 'nuff said. Though shopaholics and fashion-istas will be disappointed about the appalling range of clothes when it is not summer.

5. Best traffic - KL
Yes, you always complain about KL's traffic, but you might be just whining. About 54% of ppl living in London do not own a car, and you don't need to wonder why this is so. Cos its hell driving in London!! Traffic jams everywhere!! And when weekends come, there are more cars in Central London as congestion charging doesnt work in the weekends!! Goes to show why public transport in London is so well-covered.





Well, there you are. My 2 cents. While I can't pick over the 2, I can ponder over this; why can't some country be a cross of both these countries??

p.s. The thing I miss most about London are the walks by Tower Bridge at night. Simply beautiful....

p.s.s and I miss my Stella Artois.

Supposed Former Internet Junkie

While I was in London, I had subscribed for a Telewest (now Virgin Media) 2Mbps line for about 15quid a month. And hell, was it fast!!! Whenever i saw a new movie up in Mininova, I run the torrent, and 3 hours later, I'll be watching that damn show. Hell, I even subscribed to Crunchyroll so that I can get their high quality videos and even then, I was streaming 3 videos at a time!! And even better, SK will also be streaming 2 videos at the same time with the same line!! It was a Internet junkie's paradise!! Life was indeed good.

Then I came back to KL, land of the Screamyx.

I currently have a 2Mbps line at home, and even now the connections are freakin slow!! And you can't even run a torrent and surf facebook at the same time. From what the geeks at Lowyat forums say, TM is 'throttling' torrents, ie. blocking p2p torrent connections so that users have more bandwidth to surf. But I have another solution; why not increase your bandwidth?? You guys are earning so much already, yet the service provided isn't top-class.

But a miracle happened today!! My torrent had just gone up to approximately 230KB/s!! Thats the first time I've ever seen such numbers since I came back!!

While I know that this might be a temporary, but it still does give me hope that I'm not being conned with a slow 2Mbps line. Hopefully, I'll get to see more of this type of speeds soon, which might still be a long shot. But hey, it's a start....

Note: Please ignore the fact that 2 out of 3 torrents that I'm downloading are 'good stuffs' XD

Just when it couldn't get any worse....

New budget to restructure savings to include new item into wish-list.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel......

It's approximately 4.22am now, and let me recap the long night that I had. At 8pm , I had emailed my boss (recap: boss = supervisor) to ask him when he was going for his holiday, as I remembered that he told me about it on our last meeting about a month ago. A few hours later, he replied me, saying this:

I'm leaving tomorrow for 2 weeks.....

Oh great!! I thought I still had a chance if I were to send it immediately to him on that same day, and so I emailed him to see whether he will still be willing to read it. Of course, such a simple email will take him hours to reply, so I took my chances and started writing it.

After 4 hrs later, I've almost finished my results column, and he replies me, saying that he can't read it. Jerk. Never mind, I thought, I'll just send it to someone else. In the meantime, I've almost finished my results, might as well complete it.

And completed it I did.

NOW I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (except the editing part of course)

And I need my sleep!!

A brave new world for graduates...

Today's the day that the UOL results were released (finally). I can personally relate to those graduating this year as well as those just simply waiting for the results; you know its around this time that the results come out but you dunno when!! So stressful!! And when you know its released, its like a jackhammer just suddenly hits your head and releases a ton of adrenaline into your body!! hahaha!!!! Nevertheless, congrats to all who had graduated!! All the best to taking a new step into the new corporate world where we'll sacrifice 1/3 of our lives slaving and working under the corporations whose main aim is profits XD Nah, I'm just joking!! I'm also waiting to start work myself, so all the best to us then!!

Gary: It's not the end of the world. So slack larr :) SO when's Nando's anyways ?? XD
HL: Congrats man!! You're our newest member in the club that probably has the most members from the UOL!! Dun worry, not everyone can join this club even if they wanted to man ;)
PL: Congrats with your results!! Hope you're doing well in the U.S. and hope to see you soon in November!!! :D

Dun really know the other's results, but congrats again anyways!!

I WANT MY PESTO!!!!

Where in KL do they sell pesto!?!?!?!?!

I've been back to KL for almost a month now, and one of the things that I miss most from London is the pesto!!


The bowl of goo on the bottom right of the picture above is pesto.





Yes, it might look like puke,like the pasta above, but its healthy and it totally ownz with every kind of pasta ever imaginable!! The only place that I ever came across that sells pasta with pesto sauce is at Delicious at Bangsar Village, but at Rm15.90 a plate, it's hella expensive for a vegetarian pasta!!

So pls, ANYONE!!! If you do know where pesto is sold, just tell me where it is in the comments, and u'll be greatly rewarded in the Land of the 72 virgins in the future!! XD

BBQ Party!! and some other Meaningless Reports...

Yup, I've just finished writing it and have sent it to MY who'll post it up in her blog with pics!! Those who wanna read it can internet it @ laumaye.blogspot.com

Dun think it's necessary to post the same report in 2 blogs, so I'll not do so.





Ok, i'm just lazy!! XD


And I'm clueless as to how to fabricate more baseless theories and factors for my results section of my dissertation. Maybe getting high might help : /

w00t!! had lunch with basically the whole gang today at KinKin. Now everyone has agreed for a game of badminton for 2 hrs every Saturday, since everybody is so weight-conscious now. But if everyone's so weight-conscious, why did a some of them have 2 bowls of pan mee?! A riddle that remains unsolved....

And gotten conned to Batu Caves this time by Thean to collect something . No complaints this time, he was driving. We were mighty impressed by the amount of 4x4 off-roaders near the area, which Thean claims were 'the only mode of transportation to get to his arnaments warehouse, somewhere in the mountains near Genting'. Utter crap. Hopefully he won't take us to some ulu place like Port Klang next time.

....wait, he HAD taken us to Port Klang b4. Bitch XD

Dissertations & Constellations

Bah, had just lost a huge chunk of what I was gonna blog, so here goes nothing, again.....

I have been really busy these past 2 weeks on writing up my dissertation. I know, many of you are thinking, "you still have so much time!! slack la!!" But thats not the point. I have to finish it before September 15th, my self-imposed deadline. Two reasons for this; I need to send it back by courier, and who knows how long that might take. Tentatively I have FedEx on my mind, mainly because my dad has an account there and they're reliable. But they MIGHT pull off a 'Castaway' problem....

Second reason!! Our "son" Dennis is coming back to KL on the 16th!! So have to pooi him until he goes back to London on the 30th!!, Haha yea I know he has other 'friends', but its better to keep a clean timetable to spend more time with him, muahaha!!

Back to the dissertation. Have spent about 10 days (including weekends!! :/) to write up my intro and literature review. Its quite hard cos you have to quote so many previous studies in your work, and u have to make sure that you can't leave any stone unturned!! Grrr... sooo frustrating!! But I finished it and sent it straight away to my 'boss' (supervisor). Got the reply yesterday, and he seems quite happy with it!! Cool, now I have more confidence with writing my results :). Yup, have finished the methodology section as well in 2 days. I think it's a rushed job, but I need to let ppl review it before I send it to my "boss" for a final review. Good luck to me!!

Suddenly got this huge interest in horology, or at least, their physical end-product side. Why?? Cos my sis studies at KPD and everytime I dropped and fetched, I'm bound to see this HUGE GIGANTIC advert with Brad Pitt and his Tag Heuer Carrera, which is sooo beautiful!! The power of advertising indeed. Now after going through a few sites on expensive watches, and giving note to my incredibly light wallet *sniff*, I finally decided on an Omega Constellation Perpetual Calendar!!

Ok, it's steel and not those tauke businessman gold, but it's nice!! Its got a 60 month of kinetic energy storage so theres no such thing as batteries anymore!! and another thing, it also has a smaller 'sister'!! So, maybe both of us can complete the set muahahahaha!!

Anyways, there's still a LONG way to go (unless I win the lottery or something) before I see this watch everyday on my wrist..haha, such wonderful daydreams!!!

And reality sets in. Am off to write my results now.

Update: Perpetual Calendar is not seen in any watch shops. Constellation is now priced at RM5,800 after the petty 20% discount is included. Thats probably about 6 months of savings, minus-ing all the other miscellaneous stuffs from my take-home pay. Perhaps I need to search harder.....

Buy one lunch, free 1 trip to Puchong

Usually when friends call me out for lunch, we just go to the restaurant, have a meal, talk cock and leave. That's probably what everyone does. But when my friend Thean calls us out for lunch, something's definitely up. Yup, today was no exception when he called me and Andrew out for lunch. I bought the reason of 'Boss in Penang' and agreed for lunch. Then, when I got into the car, I saw Thean's workbag and some documents, my mind was going 'Fuck, I think I've being setup'.

I was right. Thean had to go get some sample at a client's (thats wat Thean usually calls his 'customers') in fucking Puchong. And as a reward, we get to see his new place in Puchong. Problem was, it was the other end of Puchong. While I must admit that the place was a cool 1.5million well spent, but it's location was shit and it's quite isolated. Sure, you get the peace away from noisy Puchong, but it's still isolated and far!! But nvm, he'll only move in about a year and a half's time from now, so at least I'll STILL get to see him now....lol....

Work+Play Balance in KL

It has been almost a week that I've came back to Kl, and what I should be doing is updating the blog since I have so much free time to spare. This is not the case, as I've already started following up with my dissertation. After doing what my supervisor advised me, I sent back my stuffs for his opinions and whether it is suitable or not. But he hasn't replied me. While I've already anticipated that he'll take his own goddamn sweet time to go through my stuff (pray he does), its still taking him hella long to just go thru 1 document of data. Now, I couldnt care less of his opinions anymore and have since then continued writing the dissertation's literature review and background, leaving out the results section until that pukimak comes back to me (pray he does).
This is how committed I am to writing my dissertation

Another reason why I've been spending lots of time at home, and only went once once with friends was because I have a new toy at home!!
My new time waster :)

Yup, I bought it last week and have been spending a 'reasonable' amount of time with it, muahaha!! While it came with 10 games, I've only started with 3 games, with the rest still yet to be played. But slack ler, theres still sooo much time until I start work, muahaha!! One of the games that I currently enjoy most is Warioware: Smooth Moves. While the games are pretty much a no-brainer, like finding a person in the dark, using the wii-mote as a torch among others, the pace of the game always keeps you interested even if these games are always recycled!
WarioWare: Smooth Moves
Wii Sports

After these games, I'm definitely gonna try Super Paper Mario and Call of Duty 3. But when oh when are my 3 favourite DS games; Animal Crossing, Mariokart and Phoenix Wright gonna make it into the Wii????

To a Dear Friend...

Dear 34 Rawstorne Street,

Remember the first time we met? It was probably around the 3rd day that we arrived in London that we've had the chance to meet each other. You weren't in the best condition to see us on that day; your previous tenants had left you so messy that I would think that some would even avoid you. But it was love at first sight the moment me and Soh Khun walked through that door; the warm and loving atmosphere that was emitted throughout the place, the cheerful disposition that you had, even under all the piles of clothes that your previous tenants didn't bother to hang. You were one of the best places that we've ever viewed , and we were more than willing to let you share our time together in London, regardless of the price that we had to pay (which was actually a steep one at that!!)

Remember that first day we moved in? It was the 6th of October, 10 days after we've first met each other. Me and Soh Khun had a big fight when we moved in, arguing about many things, from the time spent to cleaning and moving furniture to even arguing about where we should put the pasta and sauces! (I won that one by the way :P) It was the first day of our new adventure in London, and you've made it as easiest as possible for us to settle down and make us feel at home. We also didn't had to buy any extra items such as crockery when we moved in, it was already provided by you, and so you've also helped us save a bit of money on things that we were definitely going to throw away when we went back.


Not only were you friendly with us, you were also friendly to our friends whenever that came around. Remember Chee Siong whom you accommodated for 13 days in January? It was probably one of his best experiences while he was also here in London. Imagine the 3 of us would cover ourselves under blankets and watching crunchyroll separately in winter where it was already dark at 4.30pm, just to save on heating bills!! He also came down a few times after that, and you've also showed him the same hospitality even after that. Perhaps the most memorable was that he became friends with SK so quickly. SK probably wasn't the most friendly person in the world, and would usually keep to herself in front of strangers or people that she wasn't very close to. But it was probably your doing that made them possibly the best of friends in one evening!! Up till today I still have no idea how it happened, but at least knowing one more friend is better than knowing one more enemy, not like they had any bad blood between them before.


Not only Chee Siong, but also Dennis who came by very frequently whenever he had the chance. Of course he came over for the home-cooked food which he most of the time did not have to fork out for, and for the mahjong sessions, but he didnt get away that easily did he, washing the plates instead, haha!! Truth be told, I've never come to knowing Dennis very well during our Diploma in Economics days, but you gave me the chance to know him better whenever he came around, and I'm very thankful for that chance. Many gossips were often traded within you, and most of them stayed within you. That was the bond between the 3 of us, which I'm glad to have obtained throughout the time we were here, at 34 Rawstorne Street.



Even though you were only a one bedroom flat, you've accommodated most of the people who've had come over to stay comfortably. While it was only me and SK around, I took the living room with the mattress by the side of the radiator (soooooooooooo good during winter...) while SK took the whole double bed in the bedroom. Remember the time we had 7 people living there?? I know it was crazy, but we did have a fun time anyway. It was my parents who took the bedroom while they were in London, and the rest of us who slept like canned sardines on the lush carpet floor in the living room! Well, at least we kept each other warm during winter without incurring extra costs anyway hahaha......


Not forgetting why we were here, we've (most of the time) used our time in 34 Rawstorne Street pursuing our Masters. It wasn't an easy task; so many assignments had to be completed throughout the semesters and under a short period of time, which made it even more stressful. But it was your aura that kept us going, giving us the motivation to create assignments that were worthy of distinction marks. Not to mention the many times when we locked ourselves at home, isolating us from the rest of the world (not really though, there was the Internet :P) to cram for our exams, which we did ace in the end, with a huge margin. With only our dissertation left, you've helped us made it this far without any problems, and I'm grateful for that.

For the past 10 months, you've been a great friend to us. We will definitely not forget you, nor I think you will also forget about us so easily (we've left a few marks here and there, don't tell the landlady though :P). As I'm writing this, we're already fully packed and waiting to meet the landlady to hand over the keys. I hope that you will treat your new tenant as warmly as you've treated us for the past 10 months, and perhaps we might meet again in the near future sometime. Until then, it's goodbye for now and all the best.

Banksy

I'm not sure if you've ever encountered his 'works of art' but they're everywhere in London, and I've even seen a few emails of his work being forwarded in emails.





Banksy: Hero or Graffiti Menace ? You decide.

P.S. This is the nearest Banksy graffiti near my place in Angel. Its at the intersection of Farringdon Road and Rosebery Avenue. Something to do with our over-dependence on machines?

Harry Potter and the Surrounding Hype

I listed one of my 'favourite books' as 'random ebooks in piratebay' in my friendster. Well, staying true to my 'favourite books' I found a copy of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' online and finished reading it a few days before release, XP (Sorry about reading it before its release Ms. Rowling, but you might be happy to find out that my sister had paid RM109 for your book already :) )

Knowing the ending and all, which I didn't reveal to anyone (except my sister who 'asked for it') I also went to a Harry Potter launch party

in Borders nearby my place in Angel.

Employess scurrying around in their robes and wizard hats

They brought an owl in for the party!!

It wasn't really crowded when we went in at 8.30pm, but the party was supposed to have lasted until 12.01am or something when the book is officially released. But didn't really stayed up until that sort of time just for a book; went home to get enough rest for the start of the Next sale at 4am. Now that's more worth it than queueing for the HP7 book!! (the last sentence is not a review of the HP7 book :

Every Problem has a solution...or does it??

I must admit, I'm not the cleanest guy in the world. Which was probably why my skin was more sensitive (ie. dry) to the tempermental weather in the UK. With the the dry skin itching away and the help of some itchy fingers, the dry part worsened until friends asked me what happened to that particular area of my face. As I didn't want to start a long conversation, I just mentioned that it was an allergy, adding that i was caused by the music blasted by chavs through their mobile phones on buses and trains.

It finally worsened to the point where I knew that scratching would NEVER help at all, and finally resorted to investing in some facial products that, hopefully, would solve the problem instead of a trip to the dermatologist.

While it's too early to tell how effective it will be, but hey, the itching's stopped, which is a great start. Hopefully by the time I head back to KL, that area's finally cleared of any dryness, and THIS TIME, I'll continue to use it instead of just leaving it aside on the basin....