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.....