Feverish pace...

For regular readers, it's not like you didn't notice...but I've changed my blog design just few days back. The new design has a glass of wine as the background in replacement of my fav beverage (it still is!): Coffee. The glass of wine represents...errr...pretty much nothing. Don't ask me why Wine instead of Coffee. No reason. Me and my idiosyncratic way of writing remained.


This year, I've been much quieter. There's a lot happening around me and my life but there's doesn't seem to be any correct time to write it. My Twitter and Facebook have been the main podcast of my life; however it's good to generally update you with my going-ons:

1. Scuba Diving at Perhentian Islands Kecil and Besar (27-30 May 2010):

I am pretty glad with the trip that we've planned. I've clocked in 8 amazing and very very challenging dives!! I just gotten my diving license in Jan 2010, so compared the rest of my diving buddies (Kenny, Chin Yee, Ling2), I'm still novice when it comes to open water dives, which btw cost you guys a wreckage dive :(

Perhentian was a very very pleasant place to dive and with an awesome Dive Master from a We-Will-Do-Everything-For-You-Including-Washing-Your-BCD Dive Centre @Watercolours, I could not ask for more!

Highlights of the 8 open-water dives:
1. 3-legged turtle eating weeds very gelojoh-ly!
2. A scary looking Moray eel,
3. Chin Yee (and sometime I do too) trying to spot a nudibranch w/o help of divemaster. Futile.
4. A giant i.e. 1.5m sting ray!
5. Cleaner-shrimp giving all of us a manicure.
6. Very strong undercurrent and low visibility at dive spots: at Batu Nisan & Lighthouse. Challenging!
7. An annoying Digi Yellowman who lost his dive-buddy and bumping on us all over *benci*.

We stayed at Watercolours' Impiani resort/chalet. Our chalets is very high on top of the hill with a great great view fr the balcony. The food is pretty good and the services by the staffs were very friendly. But a lot of mosquitoes and biawak, gecko!!!







From the Impiani's chalet balcony. Other pics from this trip: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/cchivy/DivingAtPerhentianIsland2730May2010?feat=directlink

2. My birthday 8 June 2010:

My besties organized a pre-bday dinner for me at The Apartment, The Curve sempena my 2*th bday. I do feel older. Even some pictures do show. I browsed through all my bday photos throughout the years and did noticed the changes in myself through the years: I looked less cute, but mature, wiser, and prettier...no? :P

On my bday itself, I was FFK-ed by my own family for a bday celebration. I was dissappointed but nevertheless someone special was there to cheer me up. Japanese food for me! YUMMS for the unagi I ordered. Huge portion some more. I totally recommend this place to our AsiaCafe-no-more-gang. Go to: Kissaten @ IOI Boulevard.

1. Run Run Run and what comes with it:

An all new Ipod Nano as a b'day gift. It will make a good accessory for my running. Next run will be at SCKL21km, and there's no better running companion than this amazing mp3 player.

But more importantly is an earphone that doesn't dislodge from your ears when u run + sweat. I suffered during the 15km run during Pacesetters in May because I kept pressing the earphones to my ears the whole run. Doesn't work. Maybe my ear-hole is not 'standard' size. Too big.

So I've gotten a new pair of earphones also from the Apple Store. A very good buy, sumbatan yang baik, boleh memendekkan the tali, and more importantly good bass.

  Then I forgot: Remind me to return the Ipod Shuffle to Cal girl!!!

3. Fever: Makan bola, Tidur bola, Pakai bola...

I wished it didn't happen so soon. But it is June 2010 and it's imminent. I will definitely lose some huge amount of sleep. Plus, I always am a big football fan, I can't help it. In English premier league, I support ManUtd, but in World Cup, I support the footballer. No wayne, no lionel; Yes to Kaka.

There are 3 places in my house where you won't miss the WC schedule: I put one above my headrest of my bed at the wardrobe; one huge fourfourtwo piece at the kitchen wall; one more at my kitchen table.

Sorry Bun, but you're right...I have gotten myself a FourFourTwo magazine plus a Time edition of the world cup.  I am trying to get hold of every information of the WC as I can. Once every four years marrr...










But what folly!!!!!! I don't even subscribe to the Astro's Sports Package!!!

I thought I'd just depend on my RTM...but alamak...found out only 35 Perlawanan terpilih je.....

Dear all,

I've never asked for too much. I'm often quite contented with life. Also quite modest in my wantings. But this year, I want all of you to pls continue to support me and everything I pursue: my career, my r/ships, my travels, and my adventures.

Thank You to all of u for giving me a great year. This is year will be another good one.

Luv, Ivy

My Sister's Keeper

The movie was first introduced by my younger brother who himself cried twice over the same movie. Sorry, an understatement - he SOBBED!

If you think you've cried enough in Nicholas Sparks' ultimate romantic movie 'The Notebook', the same director has once again relived *sniff sniff* your crying experience in Picoult's 'My Sister's Keeper'. Definitely a different plot, but this director has never failed to ignite the emotions of belonging, agape love and most definitely - the issue of live and death through his movies.

Abigail Breslin played the genetically-engineered younger sister that was 'brought to this world' for the sole purpose of supplying her leukemia-striken sister with her organs and bone marrow fluids. While her acting has been acknowledged with a nomination by the Oscars for best supporting actress in the Academy award-winning film 'Little Miss Sunshine, she acted decently well as the little sister though her role was not as outstanding as in the latter. I have to also give credit to Cameron Diaz as mum in this film - I never thought she could act so convincingly in such deep-issued-laden movie because I've always compared her to former movies like "There's Something about Mary" (loved it!) and the latest release "Knight and Day" with *vomit* Tom Cruise.

While I tagged "Little Miss Sunshine" as one of my best movie experience of all time, "My Sister's Keeper" presently tops them all!

The movie made me sob; it made FP sob to the max. But definitely a good-kinda sob.....


Ratings: 8/10

Am I seeing wrong?

Monday Blues. Capital Blue, because just came back fr a great diving escapade in Perhentian! (will blog when I have the mood).

And while force-feeding myself with some knowledge, my eyes got soo droopy, I am still still wondering if I am seeing this right:



This kept me awake for a moment. For a second.


OK, Off to bed.

Deepwater Horizon and one of those boring post

Whether it happened in US or not, or whether it concerns my job or not, my concern is more of the chronic effects of the (any!) oil spill, which predictably could last your life time. Take Exxon Valdez for example - happened in 1989 in the Alaskan waters - its effects on human livelihood and ecological effects can still be felt today - 21 years after the incident. Not like I am US citizen ke ape ke, but I ade empathy untuk sea creature-sea creature sekalian kat dunia ini. I was not aware of the spill at the Great Barrier Reef as I was enjoying my weekend in Singapore until someone highlighted it to me :) However, the fire at Deepwater Horizon was more of my concerned as the pollution impact is comparatively bigger.

I work directly with processed crude such as diesel. The smell of diesel itself could overwhelmed the whole greenhouse and ppl like me who come in contact day in day out with such chemical. I swore I suffocated even under a face mask. It's the benzene in the crude that concerns me most - a cancer-causing agent which is also deleterious to our genes (zombies babies, mutants, X-men will come to mind). I was just wondering how fishes and sea creatures could 'take in' crude oil spewed all across the ocean. And what could be worse than we humans consuming those sea-lings (such word?)? Think food chain...

*A full body check-up provided by my company say I have no (minute) benzene in me. Which was good news. Itu last, last month punya exposure. Dunno lah in the future how...

The murderous explosion and fire in the oil rig which is currently spewing environmental havoc may not end so soon. As British Petroleum (BP) are trying to cap the rig spilling 2.5 million gallons per day to the Gulf with a dome-like structure, even they can't guarantee for sure the spill will be contained definitely. BP brought in the effort of  a special dispersant to prevent oil from surfacing and Prison-Break men to save creatures/birds surrounding ground zero (tantamount to 240000 square km). Affected residences continue to fear the consequences from such disaster, relating back to the effects which is still significantly felt by the Alaskan ppl due to Exxon Valdez. Actually, selfishly and crudely, I am more interested in the the dispersant that BP is using to disperse the oil+water (evil laughter) for my current project....

Genrally, Malaysians are not too aware of the consequences of such disasters. We are more appalled by news of snatch theft, political frogs, traffic jams, etc. but of course, these are valid concerns in our lives. Since Malaysians are seldom faced with disasters, natural or man-caused, we are hugely not alerted by ecological news. Awareness of climate change, green-technology, makan shark fin, and simply - recycling, has not been instilled as concretely as in many other countries.

Ehh btw, I realised that nama-nama oil-oil rigs di overseas ni memang canggih-canggih betul! If you google Malaysia punya nama oil rig, the names all sangat tak relevan dan tak sedap dengar....

Okay, this post is getting lame... Sekian saja, terima kasih.

Glee

In conjunction with Kelly Clarkson's coming to KUL on Sunday, and for my love of GLee, here's one of my best piece from the musical series:

"My Life Will Suck Without You" by Kelly Clarkson/Glee Cast


On the surface, GLee seemed pretty much like High School Musical and upon hearing the word, you may see some ppl putting on the 'ewwww' or 'urggh' faces, but I shan't say so....It's really really good, esp. the mash up of some great songs and vocals by the casts. The choreography looked simple, but always make me wanna jump up the sofa and dance too..

...or maybe it's just me. I love musicals/theatre/plays. But personally, everyone should watch Glee. Oh ya, my mum adores this series...


* Oh, forgot to add that this Kelly Clarkson song is my 2nd best song from Glee. My ultimate Glee song is "Defying Gravity".

One case closed

Each time I tell people where I work, they will usually proceed by asking me "So, you work in KLCC ar? You've been up the skybridge?"

Duh!!

Of course I've been there, but like many other Malaysians, I used to take the Twin Towers for granted, as well as the KL Tower. Until I've worked in Petronas, I've not been to any of those fame towers (not because I have height phobic) but because I took for granted that those two Towers will not crumble anytime(?) soon just like in 9/11 or LOTR.

A daunting question: "So, Ivy, how do I get into the KLCC's skybridge, the general public can get in, right?".

I can never never give a definite answer to that question because I am just complacent about such things. My parents hated me for that.

Here are my 6 main excuses when ppl ask me how to get to skybridge:

6. I dunno about u lah but I got the staff smart-tag marr which brings me every floor including the bridge. Too bad for u lorr... :P

5. I know u must start queuing very early, but don't ask me what time.

4. No more tickets arr? I dunno how to sneak you in worrr, you wear soooo short skirt cannot go in wan....

3. Nothing wan lah...bridge only wattt!!

2. You wanna go for what, what if you pening-pening? Sign this disclaimer first. :P 

1. KL always hazy: no view, no point!

Cause honestly, I don't know. Thank God I can provide u with a good answer from another blog. A must read:  http://www.haimalaysia.com/how-to-visit-petronas-twin-tower-skybridge-for-free/

**Queue at 6am?!?!?!?

My experience in skybridge was a short but nonetheless a memorable one. In a nutshell: Just like I, my rusa-masuk-kampung colleague also have not been to skybridge. So he dared me to swipe my card open the sealed door to the bridge, and I did. We went halfway across the bridge and quickly phone camwhored. Then we felt eyes staring at us. Bad feeling. From the other end of the bridge, we saw a cross-looking security guard marched to our side but we quickly swipe the door and CABUT!!:

Because the sky bridge has 2 levels: ppl who worked at the towers get the access to bridge on the 42nd(?) floor whereas the public uses the 41st floor. On the 42nd floor, any each group/individual that passes the bridge must be escorted to the other side/end by a guard. If not, the guard will "OI!" you and chase u out if u masuk the bridge yourself - dun care you VIP or VP or CEO or CFO or UFO. :P

Case close?

Case closed.

Asia Cafe

We always commune Asia Cafe. While some 'members' are regulars, some are not. There were times we move to Murni (ex-SS2) but ever since Murni moved to its new site at Aman Suria (Sunway Mas), we've never looked back at any other options. It has been Asia Cafe ever since. Btw, Asia Cafe at SS15 - situated near Inti, Taylors, Metropolitan colleges, and to the delight of CNB - where many young leng luis pass by.

Asia Cafe no doubts offers a myriad variety of food. But I won't say the same for the parking spaces. You may park under the trees but it's never a good idea esp. at night because by the time you return from yum-cha, you'll soon realised the white, green, splats of torpedoes/missiles from the natural aviaries above. Find places to park where no trees are in-sight.

My fav - fried sotong

Claypot Lou Shu Fun

Asia Cafe does live up to its name. It has all sorts of stalls selling all sorts of foods. Asian food (of course!), Italian, American...you name it, you got it (somebody proof me wrong, pls). I wouldn't say all food there taste good; but I can vouch for the Korean food. 'Cause when I am in Asia Cafe, I usually go for Korean. The stall is right at the corner and is own by this Korean Man; of course, you see banglas managing the stall once in a while. You can't miss this stall; the Korean boss always stands right outside his stall, with his strong accent, luring passer-bys to his stall, even explaining the menu. From Dong Kkas to Bibimbap, food cooked here are all authentic, quite tasty, though the presentation is rather sloppy.

Bibimbap

Worth mentioning is the Italian kitchen - having the most handsome guy in Asia Cafe (he's the owner-cum chef). Plus, he is (authentically) Italian! I've never tried his food; only by look at him makes me full already. Hah!

You can't miss the seafood grilled as there are about 6 stalls selling grilled seafoods. I've tried the ikan pari before which was quite commendable :) However, if you want to choose a seat/table, don't sit right in front of those grills beause the chilly pepper or the spices e.g. sambal belacan they are cooking makes your nose itch the whole night! It's like you're being infected by some sneezing disease. Stay away from those A-labeled tables. But if you sit beside the Italian kitchen, you will also smell carbonara or bolognese sauces or the spicy pesto cooking at the kitchen - those smells really make your stomach itch. Which turns out to be a good itch - cause the smell will make you order a serving of spaghetti even after you've wallop the whole Bibimbap.

Fettuccine Carbonara from Asia Cafe

WTF, no Wifi!?!??! I recently brought my netbook and realised there's no free access to Wifi. What a big turn-off to a happening area such as this.

Otherwise, Asia Cafe is a nice place to hang out. Far for many others, but a good distance from my apartment albeit the toll.

But still, we have to suggest other places to hang out d.....Any suggestions?

This ain't Fishville.

You have a puppy dog; you have persian cat; you may have a ball python or probably a brood of chickens (which only applies to my mum).....

....the last time I had a pet was a tortoise that died in my captivity for 1 year...although theoretically it could live for 50 more years. I gave up.

Yes, that's how I got into rearing fishes as pet. And so you thought it was pretty 'simple': all you need was an aquarium, water, soil, stones, live weeds, filter. Done!

But noooooo.....life have to be difficult for you; easy is never in life's dictionary. There goes my blown filter (thank god my fishes weren't electrocuted). Then there goes 75% of my fishes lying dead a day or two after the initial aquarium set up. Then there goes my tame-turned-cannibalistic (hungry!) fishes which eats anything that is within the four walls of the aquarium. Plants got ripped off, fishes eating up their own dead friends. My only-female guppy was gang-banged/raped and died soon, I presumed, due to fatigue :P During the long CNY break, my only-female guppy died a horrible death due to extreme hunger of the other fishes.

It was a like a horror Zombie movie, but where the dead remained dead. My aquarium turned into a graveyard!

But that was 2 months back.

Today, after lots of professional help (thanks!) and some extra effort...I've got:

3 zebra fish, 6 baby guppies from my raped-but-dead female guppy (big big contribution by the female species), the 2 male rapists, and 6 cherry shrimp (although I can never see all 6 at a single time).

But 3 of the fishes need some dieting to do. Too fat.'

Next step: A siphon

I forgot to blog

A couple of subscribers to my blog have already doubted my dedication towards blogging and it's about time I post something now. The real issue is not that I have nothing to say; I have been procrastinating as usual. Now, let me update you subscribers(?) on my going-ons lately:

Feb was fab!

Gotten myself(?), no..my parents...a new car. It's a grey Perodua Alza. The downpayment for the Alza was dug-up from my(?) amazing, small-turning circle, cute, reed, mini-cooper-like Kelisa which I sold to a close subordinate. Though I felt absolutely depressed on the departure of my love of 5 years, it was about time I gave this great looking car up before the selling price drops. The good (or bad?) thing is that I still my(?) Kelisa is still very visible at my office parking area. Urrgghh..actually each time I see the Kelisa - it's a jab straight to the heart (it's bad). And the Alza I bought for my parents in exchange for the safer(?) Waja? - it definitely ain't my no. 1 car choice: as you can see it's an aunty-car!

I now drive my dad's Waja of 7 years. A huge, safe, but pariah (per-rye-ah) car, I should conclude. By all means: BIG BIG turning circle (sick!), huge ass, and eats up my petrol like oil is free. And this car has given me some heart-attack moments e.g. in the heart of KL-near Pelita. Thanks for coming to my rescue in a middle of a downpour!! :)

How could I talk about Feb without touching on the topic of CNY which passed me by like a swift wind. This year was different as I, if I am not wrong, have not celebrated CNY in Ipoh since 2005(?). I wish to have it every year in Ipoh if not for my dad's hometown being PJ. :( But nothing is as memorable as me putting on like 1-2kg(!) this CNY. And I can't seem to lose it despite the runs and swims.

FP and Gary ROM, of course...How could I forget :) What happened in between is none of my business...hahahaa...but I'm glad to have been part of her happiness. Almost 1.5 years have passed since she moved in and many eventful stuffs have come and gone between us. I'll cherished those moments together. I really hope someday I'll be happy like her. Hey FP, when's our next clubbing?!? Hahhahaa..

March seemed like a mix:

I do look like a prisoner/detainee in that yellow coveralls! But indeed, in March, I could prophesy that I will be prisoner/hard-labourer for my work/company. Datelines are coming up real-real soon and I would have to crack my brains and fingers for the entire month's installation.

But the month of March 2010 also began with a good dose of refreshing(?) jokes and comedy:

This month's Time Out KL's Comedy Thursday again has impressed me with new line ups (incl. Rudy from Hitz.fm) of comedians. One have to come to Zouk every first Thursday of each month to understand the impact it has done to me to the extend that I have the inkling feeling of going back each month(!), which is of course, quite unnecessary. Lots of jokes (with sexual connotation) this month. I loike! I laughed out sooooooo loud that I was embarrassed with my own laughter(soo rough!) and for those who were around me. Also would like to really thank someone for his company throughout this time and for tahan-ing all my crude behavior.

Energizer Night Race is up end of March. Let's wear-out our running shoes! I don't hope to improve my 10km time, but I hope that this run and the built-up to this run will sorta bring back my original body-shape :P

Til then, folks. P/S: Sorry for the punctuation overload.

Camel's hump

Have you seen a

camel hump?

This camel was humping a steering wheel!

Gong Xi Fa Cai

&

Dragon Horse Sperm God!!