Life on the Island

After my business meeting in Singapore on Thursday, I hopped on a flight straight back to Penang for the weekend.

Every now and then I try to make it a habit to come back to Penang most importantly to see my family and remind my parents that they still have a third son, but also to soak in a bit of island life.

How different is life in Penang from KL? Take yesterday for example, it was dinner time and I went along with some friends to this hawker centre that was at the backyard of this old bungalow house right by the sea.
There were all kinds of hawker food by the sea, everything from your usual Penang Char Kuey Teow to even French Food with a chef really from France,
and Wunderbar German Sausages... all at a fraction of what you would pay in KL for the same thing.
We took a place on one of the tables by the sea and sat down to enjoy the sea breeze and start doing what we like to call "Talking Cock".

In no time the food will come.

I had the typical Char Hor Fun

but one of my other friends on the table even had this macaroni and cheese bake thing.


You can't help but take a look around at the other patrons of this hawker centre and notice that you have everyone from the typical tourists

to more tourists

and to the true blue Penangites!

And you know what's the best part of all this?

In Penang, we can wear whatever we want when going anywhere, even if we go to the nicest shopping malls here and I take advantage of that.

No accidentally running into clients in public... so I take every opportunity I have to wear silly shirts, like this one that Nicole gave me.

Shirts like those make me happy. So funny how whenever I walk around, everyone stares at my chest to read what my shirt says.

Words just attract attention. Especially big ones.

I remember when I was in London, I used to share a flat with this really hot British Born Hong Kong girl.

She loves to wear pants like this.

And I find myself always staring down at her ass reading the words even if I already know what they say from before. I can't help it.. big words just BEG you to read them.

Let me prove a point.

DON'T READ THE NEXT LINE!!!

DIDN'T I TELL YOU NOT TO READ THIS LINE?!?!?!

See? You read it anyway didn't you.

Fortunately that friend of mine is a nice girl, and she enjoyed the attention... right Julia? :P

Anyway, whatever shirt I was wearing could NOT even come close to the shirt another shirt another one of us was wearing.I mean.. how do you compete with a tag line like that?

You just can't... You can't!!!

Anyway after we're done with our dinner and have had enough time talking cock and enjoying the full moon that was coming up,
we would all adjourn and head home.

As I leave the old bungalow house, I would come heads on to a number of office buildings, one of which (the one in the center) is where our Nuffnang Penang office is located.

That is the fascinating thing about Penang.

You have a bit of a tropical island kind of feel, and at the same time you have a bit of a city feel with all the skyscrapers we have around.

After dinner, we'll all take a slow drive home and since it's Saturday night, it's time to go out.

So we go home, take off our silly shirts and dress up a little.
Now in every city in the world, there HAS to be a place where people can go to POSE and act cool.

In Penang, that place is a seaside bar called QE2.

That's right, I said seaside bar. Yes we eat by the sea, and party by the sea too :P

Now if I were an economist (which I actually am by training), I would consider measuring the performance of the economy in terms of people's drinking habits.

Why?

Because here's what I notice.

When the economy is booming (and all my friends feel rich), all my friends who go out will always buy bottles of good whiskey or vodka to drink.

When the economy is not exactly booming, all my friends... well... we drink beer, the cheapest option.So cheap that even the girls in our group are shy to show their faces on my blog thinking

"I can't be seen just drinking a few bottles of beer in QE2... no!!! no!!! I can only be seen if we're drinking Premier or Blue Label."

Too bad for you guys because this particular girl who covered her face is actually a really hot Penang girl. But fret no more, she'll be coming to KL to finish up her studies soon... so KL guys, please ensure you're single by then.

We spend the rest of the night there drinking in the rather open air seaside environment and people-watching.
Always interesting to see how some guys and girls pose in bars and clubs.

The poser guys who are often a little red from the alcohol would see each other then shout out loud
"BRO!!! HOW ARE YOU!?!?!? LONG TIME NO SEE MAN!!! I DIDN'T KNOW YOU COME HERE TOO!!!"

Of which the translation of that is often
"Bro... I know we don't really know each other but act like you know me damn well okay? I got some chicks behind me that I need to impress".The poser girls on the other hand would scream like this when they see a fellow poser girl friend.
"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And then hop like little birdies to hug each other like they've never seen each other for 10 years when the truth is they just saw each other at the same time same place last week.

Of course the next question is.. do any of my friends act like this?No... we're more like the more passive crowd like this couple you see here.

We sit down... talk, joke... laugh... and sometimes when we run out of jokes to tell... we just sit there looking bored.

We really should start learning to pose one day though....

Posing is an art!

All pictures in this entry are taken by my trusty Panasonic DMX FX-33