My Last Weekend of June 09

Here's how I spent my weekend :)

1) Princess and I tried to go to Urbanscapes but when we got there we couldn't find parking. So Princess decided to get adventurous and go on to the muddy grass where a lot of other cars were parking. So I took my Honda Civic on a 'jungle track' drive and eventually ended up getting stuck in the mud.

Yes actually really stuck in the mud where we couldn't get out. I was about to get out of the car to push it out of the mud when we eventually manage to gain some traction and get out of it. Here's how the car ended up looking after that little adventure.

We both gave up on Urbanscapes after that.

And went straight to an automated car wash machine.

We spent the rest of Saturday shopping at Pavilion.

2) On the way back we passed a branch where people were putting up the CIMB sign.

I was amused... so I took this picture.

Princess didn't think it was anything worth taking though... to her it was just people putting up a sign. She shook her head.

3) Sunday came and we woke up late again. This Sunday was a little different though. Like many other Sundays where I normally wake up earlier than Princess, this time she actually dragged herself out of bed and straight to do some work at her computer. 

I do this every morning but I've never seen Princess like that before. Ahh... what working life has done to my poor Princess.

4) Went to Midvalley later on. Princess' old hair stylist was opening his own shop so she wanted to go give some support. We both went to get our hair done there.

By the end of the afternoon my hair was all over the floor and they weren't allowed to sweep it away. For Feng Shui reasons or something you're not allowed to sweep the floor on the first day of business.

4) We walked around Midvalley for a bit after that and we came across this.

NEW ZEALAND NATURAL.

I love New Zealand Natural!

To be honest, I never really discovered New Zealand Natural until just recently but since then I've been having it almost every time I get the chance to. I'm even a fan of theirs on Facebook. They sometimes give their Facebook fans some promotions.

My favourite flavour is Hokey Pokey... 

You guys have to try that... especially if you love Caramel. Today is actually a good time to try it out because it's the 30th of the month and every 30th they have 30% off their take home packs. 

They have some other stuff too apart from just ice-cream like Flos and Juices that I hear are pretty nice though I haven't had the chance to try them yet. They even have this Durian Flo that's made just for Malaysians. 

Princess and I hung out in the NZN cafe for a while.

5) Then we went to Princess' place later on to steal some books from her.

And to take her mum to Pasar Malam. We brought this little trolley thing and Princess somehow decided she had to pose with it.

6) Just when we're leaving this little boy came up to us and asked us if we'd like to donate for his school. I remember doing things like that when I was back in school so we donated a little bit of money.

7) Then we headed off to the Pasar Malam and we came across yum yum

and also a perfect example of polite Malaysians.

8) We had dinner with her family later that night then spent some time watching TV clinging on one another.

I was going off to Penang the next day and coming back only at the end of the week.

We were going to miss each other....

Now that I'm only halfway through my Penang trip... and I'm missing terribly much already. Can't wait to be able to hold her hand again.

Hey Look! A Camel!

I always wake up before Princess does especially on the weekends. I just somehow have the impression that girls typically sleep more than guys or find it harder to get out of bed. That's true at least between Princess and me.

Anyway my routine is I wake up then go straight to my computer to go check some work e-mails. See if there's anything really important that needs my attention. I was in the middle of that this morning when I turned to see Princess sleeping looking like this with her feet in the air (underneath the blanket).

Yes... Princess has about 800 different sleeping positions. This is one of them. I call it... "Camel-Style."

 

Rest In Peace Michael Jackson.... (Updated)

Your music will never grow old to me.

I will always be one of your greatest fans.

Rest In Peace Michael Jackson. 

Thank you... for the wonderful music and concerts.

You will be missed dearly...

Update: 

I was just watching some videos of Michael Jackson on YouTube and I came across this one from a concert of his. Made me tear.

This is how much some people love Michael Jackson! I am one of them. I don't care and I never did care about what people say about you Michael. 

You are a legend!

Prime!

I had dinner at Prime on Tuesday night with Pierre and Lay See.

It was a bit of a double date. On one end of the table was the perfect couple who was always popular in school till now.

And on the other end of the table was me and my date..... that would be Ming.

Here's the story.

Prime is apparently one of the best steak houses in KL. It's at Le Meridien. It also happens to be really expensive so while I've heard loads about it and how VIPS and royalty eat there all the time, I always stayed away. No point hanging around places you can't afford right?

So Tuesday night I was having a late meeting with Pierre, Ming and some of the Nuffies in the office when Pierre suddenly decided that we should go to Prime for dinner. He was going to treat us all!

I was dressed in jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt so I thought I was a little to underdressed to go anywhere like that but Pierre insisted.

So okay we went... and I was extremely underdressed. Everyone else who was there looke and dressed rich... like they play Polo or something. 

This was the steak I had.

This steak costs RM190. (Can you guys say "fuck me!!!"). And it was one of the cheaper ones too.

Thank you for the wonderful expensive dinner that I won't normally be able to afford Pierre. 

PS: The parking at the end of the night costed me RM14. (Can you guys say.....)

What People Do For RM8,000

I decided to buy my uncle dinner last Friday for all the help he's given me. To those of you who have been following my Twitter, you would know that every time I bang my car this particular uncle helps me out and lends me his car. Then recently I happened to bang his car as well. So I decided that I had to make it up to him.

I called up Victoria Station.

VS: Hello Victoria Station Damansara.

Me: Hi.. I'd like to make a reservation for 6 people at 7.30PM tonight.

VS: Sure. Under what name Sir?

Me: Under "Timothy Tiah"

VS: Sorry Sir?

Me: "Tee-mo-thyyy Teeeaaahhh"

VS: Sir could you say a little slower?

Me: *starts spelling* T-I-M-O-T-H-Y

VS: T-I-M-O... Mr Timo? Okay Sir. I've booked the table under Mr Timo for 8PM tonight.

Me: No no... Timothy.. TIMO -O-T-H-Y...

VS: Sorry sir? 

Me: *demotivated*.... forget it. Table under "Mr Timo please".

Not sure if the line was bad or if I now unknowingly start mumbling when I talk. The dinner was good though... not as good as the bill I got for repairing my car. RM2,400. *sigh*

I'm so broke now. I think I should go work as a Promoter in PC Fair or something giving out flyers. Speaking of which, Pierre was over at my place the other day and he was showing me some videos that were made as part of a Corntoz contest. The prize is RM8,000 and it's actually ending in a week or two. But here's the thing that surprised me most. 

Here are a few of my favourite videos that went up.

Now keep in mind that these videos are just done by people like you and me. No big movie crew or anything and look at the effort.

And of course.. Kenny Boyle.

kennysia.com: My Second TV Commercial
Uploaded by kennysia. - Discover more webcam videos and video blogs.

But here's the video that made me go... "What the f....?"

Did you see that? Holy shit! My hats off to you guys.

I watched it like 5 times already.

The Media Specialist Awards

Just the night before I left for Phuket, the Nuffies and I attended the Media Specialist Awards (MSA).

It's basically an award ceremony to recognize the best advertising campaigns in the way they use media.

For example if I'm doing a billboard ad and I do an ad with a car that sticks out of the billboard or something and it looks really cool then plus points for me and hopefully I might win an award that night. It's really interesting to see the kind of campaigns these people in the media agencies spend hours, days and weeks coming up with the idea and going about to execute them with media owners like Media Prima, The Star or Nuffnang.

There are all sorts of categories... like "Best Use of Radio" or "Best Use of Digital" and each award had a Gold, Silver and Bronze.

Upon arriving I quickly checked out the campaigns that were submitted for the awards and was a little surprised to see that quite a number of Nuffnang campaigns were submitted for the awards. 

If you've been around the blogs a lot in the past year, you would recognize some of the campaigns.

There was the Chipster Pajama Party.

The Happy-O-Meter

The Mister Potato Project Trafford

The Dutch Lady Friso Family Day Out

Our Oreo Campaign

The Ribena & Lemon 

Our Maxis "Wild Live" Blogging Event

And I'm not sure if we have any more but I didn't manage to take pictures of the rest that night.

The night started very formal. Everyone was dressed their best and there were speeches after speeches while everybody sat there to listen. 

I took the opportunity to take a picture with a few of the Nuffies there that night.

And of course with Princess who came along too :)

She so pretty!

The night quickly got going and the competitive media agencies there started cheering whenever they won something. Before long, everyone was standing up and cheering loudly when their agencies won something.

This agency called Mindshare won the most awards that night. Along with some of the Mindshare campaigns that won was a Nuffnang campaign that won a Gold. It was one of my favourite campaigns of all time... our Nuffnang Chipster Pajama Party.

I was thrilled!

And here's Desmondkiu, the person whom the award really belongs to and whom without the Nuffnang Chipster Pajama Party would never have had taken place.

It turned out to be a pretty fun night. My first time to be honest. I've never really been to any of the previous MSAs but I figured I had to go for this one.

Probably go for next year's one too.

Have a Happy Monday everyone!

Blackberry Storm and the iPhone

Lately I've been thinking about buying myself a new toy. I mean... I feel so out of date with my older version of the iPhone (as much as I love it).

Everyone around me now either has the new iPhone 3G or increasingly... a Blackberry. One thing I do notice though is most of the business people I know have Blackberries instead of iPhones. I was sitting in a meeting once with all the bosses of various companies in the advertising industry and guess what: I was the youngest... and the only one with an iPhone. The rest had Blackberries.

I've been looking to upgrade my phone lately. At first I was thinking of getting a new iPhone 3G but then after all this and after increasingly seeing quite a number of my friends carrying the new Blackberry Storm... I'm actually thinking about getting the Blackberry Storm now. Plus I recently read Xiaxue's entry about her Blackberry and I think that kind of pushed me a bit more towards getting a Blackberry.But before I decided on anything, I decided to consult two people I knew, one who owned an iPhone and another who owned a Blackberry.

On the Blackberry side we have Nicholas.

On the iPhone side however we have... Carol.

So here's how it went. I let Nicholas start off first with his attack.

1) Sending/Receiving MMS

Me: Okay Nicholas. So sell to me now. Why do you think your Blackberry is better than Carol's iPhone?

Nicholas: I can send MMS! Can you?

Carol: Can! Just need to download an MMS app!

Me: Show us Carol...

Carol: I downloaded the app but it doesn't work on my phone.

Nicholas: HAH!

Blackberry 1 - 0 iPhone

2) Push Mail

Nicholas: I get push e-mail! My e-mails come in instantly like an SMS. You have to click on download and wait for it to come right?

Carol: Yes =(

Blackberry 2 - 0 iPhone

3) Blackberry Messenger

Nicholas: I have Blackberry Messenger so I don't even need to be online to chat with anyone else around the world who has Blackberry Messenger.

Carol: What is Blackberry Messenger? I have Fring! Can use MSN and Skype

Nicholas: Yah but Fring on iPhone sucks your battery dry really fast right?

Carol: Yeah

Nicholas: Blackberry Messenger doesn't suck your battery dry. You can talk to everyone as long as they have a Blackberry.

Blackberry 3 - 0 iPhone

4) Opening Word Documents, Excel and Powerpoint

Nicholas: I can open Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents. You cannot right?

Carol: Cannot :(

Me: Oi! We can open lar! Just cannot edit only but still can open.

Nicholas: Still....

Me: Fine...

Blackberry 4 - 0 iPhone

5) Battery-life

Me: Battery life leh?

Carol: HAH!!! I tried before... last for two days without charging!

Nicholas: Mine only lasts about a day but that's because I talk a lot! Some more it lasts with my IM and E-mails all constantly online. You not right?

Carol: No =(

Me: Yeah my iPhone battery life seems to be a little shorter now too. Lasts me only one day. Maybe because I talk a lot.

Nicholas: Yah some more if necessary I can just replace my Blackberry battery. You can't right?

Me/Carol: No

Blackberry 5 - 0 iPhone

After a while I decided that I had enough hearing from Nicholas.

So I let Carol loose. MAKE ME PROUD CAROL!!!

1) Cooler

Me: Carol... tell us why your iPhone is better than Nicholas's Blackberry

Carol: iPhone is cooler!

Nicholas: What !?! What does that even mean???

Carol: Yeah it's cooler... more colour and all mah

Me: Ish.... Give us something a bit more utility based la Carol.

Blackberry 5 - 0 iPhone

2) App Store.

Carol: Got lots of games and apps with the App Store.

Nicholas: Okay fine we don't have that many.

Blackberry 5 - 1 iPhone

3) Password Protect Phone

Carol: I can password protect my phone!

Nicholas: I also can!

Blackberry 5 - 1 iPhone

4) Touch Screen 

Carol: The iPhone touch screen is a lot better than the Blackberry Storm one if you ask me.

Me: Yeah I've tried the touch screen out before and I've got to agree with Carol on that. The clicking of the screen takes some getting used to.

Nicholas: Okay fine....

Blackberry 5 - 2 iPhone

5) Virtual Piano

Carol: I have a Virtual Piano. See? *takes out iPhone and plays the virtual piano.

Nicholas: Okay fine.

Blackberry 5 - 3 iPhone

Carol went on for a while more after that on some of the fun apps she had on her iPhone and we stopped shortly right after. Things were getting a little hot and Carol and Nicholas were on the verge of throwing chairs at each other.

After the little debate I Googled "Blackberry Storm vs iPhone" and found this video.


Thought it gave a pretty fair review.

Either ways, here's what I think. The iPhone has a lot of really fun features but I'm thinking that for business use at least the Blackberry Storm does have some decent advantages over the iPhone. And since I already have an iPhone... maybe I'll get one.

There are a few Blackberry Storm plans out there but I think this one is the cheapest and the one with the least commitment.

Oh well... we'll see how it goes.

Phuket with Princess: Day 2

After seeing grumpy morning Princess on the first day of our Phuket trip, I decided that the second day we had to take it slow. So I woke up in the morning, blogged about the first day and waited for Princess to wake up.

Her Royal Highness eventually opened an eye somewhere around 12.30PM. Normally that's her first phase of waking up. She opens one eye first with body completely still. Then gradually in a span of 5-10 minutes she opens both eyes and eventually drags herself out of bed while making grumpy noises.

If you woke her up any time before the opening of the first eye... she will rain terror on you and you will shake in fear.

So I waited patiently for Princess to wake up and by 1.30PM we were at a closeby restaurant having Thai food.

Princess loves Thai food. Me... not so much. I tried to convince her that she already had Thai food in Thailand the night before. She had Tom Yam Cup Noodles in the middle of the night when she was hungry. Tom Yam Cup Noodle is Thai Food right?

But Princess didn't fall for it. So there we were in this restaurant which actually to my pleasant surprise had really good Thai food.

I gobbled up my food quickly for after lunch we were going for the highlight of my whole trip.

Guess.... guess what my highlight of the trip is.

No it wasn't so much the beach (as much as I loved it).

Or the snorkeling.

Nor was it the "WORLD FAMOUS A GO GO GIRLS" (When I expressed slight interest in wanting to check that out, Princess gave me a stare that was so hard and cold it could've killed a deer on its own).

It was.... the SHOOTING RANGE!!!

That's right... boys will be boys.... and there are few things in life more exciting for me than guns... lots and lots of guns.

It was my second time at this shooting range. The first time I stuck with a 9mm pistol and ended up getting a score of 76% or something.

So this time round I decided to try something a bit more... I tried on a bolt-action sniper rifle complete with scope.

To my surprise, it was actually really easy to shoot. Very low recoil and really accurate too. Just aim right and you'll be ok. My trainer who was watching me the whole time was really impressed.

I ended up getting a score of 95%. 

At one point the trainer even asked me 

"Are you from army in Malaysia?"

I said no.

After me it was Princess' turn to shoot a gun for the first time in her life. 

Agent Audrey Ooi reported for duty. Do not be deceived by the innocent smile and the short dress. She can shoot you... and probably hit something near you.

The trainer picked her a revolver that he felt was the easiest to use... something she could handle. She held the gun in her hand, aimed at the target which wasn't too far in front and let out a shot.

The gun flew upwards into the air throwing the bullet somewhere else other than the target it was intended for. 

Princess then turned around and looked at me shocked with big big eyes. Like she felt the gun just exploded in her hands.

She ended the day with a 54% score. So you potential bad guys out there... that means if Princess were to shoot at you, there's a 1 in 2 chance that she will hit you.

If she shot at both your balls, statistically she would hit one of them. So don't play play!

After Princess was done with her shooting, my trainer came back to me... still probably thinking that I'm from the Malaysian Army. He seemed eager to push me on. So he got me to try out a Colt .45 which was a handgun but with a bullet so big it made the sniper rifle's bullets look like little satay sticks.

I think I read somewhere that the Desert Eagle that we all shoot in Counterstrike uses a .45 caliber as well.... but I think they use bigger too.

Anyway I decided that heck, I tried the 9mm before and it wasn't a problem so this shouldn't be too much of a problem too right? I was wrong.

The recoil was so strong that I probably ended up hitting one of the birds flying overhead (I'm sorry WWF). It was then the trainer finally accepted the fact that I was never in the army... and he started teaching me how to shoot that gun properly.

Heck in the beginning before that he even just threw me the bullets and expected me to load them into the magazine myself. 

I was like... "Hello Sir.... I see them do it in movies a lot but in real life it's a little difference... some guidance would help?"

After the first few shots I began to get better and I could feel my trainer gain a sense of pride. Then after I was done with the Colt he looked over to me like he would a Young Padawan of his and with a manic gleam in his eyes he said

"You want try SHOTGUN?"

I thought about it for a while. My brother once told me he shot a shotgun and recoil was so strong it nearly took his arm off. Then the adventurous side of me decided to go ahead with it anyway.

So he brought me outside to this empty open field with targets on the other end. Probably afraid that if I performed as badly as I did with the Colt, I might actually hurt somebody with a Shotgun. 

Excited but a little worried I asked him how bad the recoil or the jerk of the shotgun was. My heart relaxed a little bit when I thought I heard him say "Less than an M16".

I clarified

"Less than an M16?"

And to my fear he said

"No no... more than M16... MUCH MUCH MORE!"

No matter... I decided to do it anyway. I held the gun like he taught me, aimed for the target and then let it out. The very same second I heard a very loud bang, the gun jerked backwards and hit me in the arm where it was lodged against.

It hurt like a bitch and by the time I was done with the next few shots I had developed bruises on my arm just from shooting the shotgun.

Princess took a video of my first shot of the gun.

Notice how I was pushed backwards and immediately gave my trainer the gun... probably screaming

"TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME!!!"

To reduce the pain on my shoulders I eventually tried shooting the last 3 shots of the shotgun from my waist... you know like how they sometimes do in movies.

Guess what... total bullshit!

You can't hit jack shit aiming from your waist.... and no don't compare it to aiming from your waist when you pee. Two completely different things!

Anyway we soon left the shooting range feeling a lot poorer. Every 10 bullets we shot cost us between RM80-RM100. We spent the rest of our afternoon (and whatever little money we had left) at a Spa where we had a Sauna, Jacuzzi, Body Scrub and Thai Massage.

You get to pick all sorts of different Body Scrubs and Massage Oils. 

Seriously it's almost as if they had one massage oil for every single thing. There was massage oil for better muscles, for better sinus.... there's probably even a massage oil that could make stupid people smart or smart people stupid.

That was the part of the trip I think Princess enjoyed the most. The Spa!

After the spa we headed for dinner at this really nice Thai restaurant by the sea...

and then back to the hotel to rest. We had to be up at 5AM the next morning to catch a flight back to KL.

I really enjoyed my trip to Phuket. It was short but it felt like we did so many things. 

Thank you PYOTravel.com  for sending me on a much needed break.