i recently spent about 5days in Hong Kong. longer than my usual holidays but... let me tell you, it was too short and it was too long.
i went with my mum and my younger brother (pictures will be uploaded later,not kinda lazy). My last night at Penang i slept at 2am (didn't want to leave my fishes alone lol) and my mum woke me up at 330am (shudve just stayed up). Groggily we made our way to Penang International airport to catch our 6am flight. when we got there, the check in line was soooooooooo long!
FYI: those who has a printer at home, please do an online check-in. you can print your boarding pass at home. online check-in and sms check-in can be done 48hrs before your flight. i stayed up long enough to see the plane take off. the feeling of being lift off the ground is my fave part. the view from above is breathtaking. Penang is truly very magnificant. as soon as we flew pass Penang, i went to sleep.
FYI: bring a pillow. sleeping practically upright for 4hrs with no place to rest your head is a very fatiguing experience.
i went to Hong Kong from 29th Nov until 4th Dec 2009. the beginning of winter. PLEASE BRING NORMAL CLOTHES AND 1 JACKET!!!!
EVERYONE told us that it would be cold. chilling. dry wind which will crack your lips. WRONG!! the wind was a little chilling and HK is less humid than Malaysia but i was sweating in my 2 layer top!
we didnt use the gloves we bought, the hats we borrowed and the warmest jackets were only used when we went to The Peak! (more on that later) Since we thought we would be under warm jackets all the time, we did not bring our best Sunday clothes. so... we looked like part of the poor when we were in Hong Kong. When you live in a tropical country, you dont really invest in nice looking clothes that keep you warm.
We stayed in the Kowloon Hotel. VERY nice hotel. highly recommended.the services are good. the concierge is very knowledgeable and all sorts of convenience is but a walk away. Usual price for a deluxe room for 2 is HKD2000 per night but my mum the wise booked and paid 5months ahead, during the height of H1N1 for only HKD600 a night
the first thing we did when we arrived at the airport is to get an Octopus card. its a cash card that can be used for virtually anything (MTR, bus, even at a convenient store!)
HKD 50 for deposit and HKD 100 reload for the first time. subsequent reloads are at a minimum HKD50. at the end of your trip, you can return the card and you will get back your cash, including all the credit that is left inside.
the website says that there is a free coach to the Kowloon Hotel but apparently we didn't read the fine prints. In order to take the free shuttle, we had to take the Airport Express Train (HKD190 per pax) to the nearest station and then the free shuttle will take you to your hotel doorstep.Since we just got there and we had no sense of distance, we paid for the Express. it was a very pleasant ride. very comfortable and very fast. we had glimpses of Hong Kong along the way.
Once we checked into the hotel, we set out to get food!!!
stumbled upon a very nice, very old fashion noodle and beef shop. DELICIOUS!!!!
turns out right beside our hotel has a MTR station called Tsim Sha Tsui station. Hong Kong has one of the best public transportation i have ever seen. everything is connected to everything! there is no need to be above ground when everything is connected underground! the taxi's are very very costly but in Hong Kong, everyone walks. we walked from sunrise to sundown. we return home every night exhausted but satisfied and worth the agony we all felt on our soles. it was a workout holiday! one i am thankful for because i was able to enjoy all the wonderful meals and not feel guilty.
we basically explored the neighbourhood around our hotel on the first day. there is a big chain of duty free shops called Sasa. they seriously sell cheap cosmetics and perfume. arond our hotel we found any kind of Factory outlet stores imaginable. Esprit?YES! Adidas?YES! Giordano??YES!! there were cheap clothes everywhere! and we went mad with shopping. not on the first day. first day was just for surveying ^^
we stopped by at a mouthwatering dessert shop for teatime and went home to rest. at night, we set off to Temple Street, a very well known must see tourist place. for those who have good flee markets in your hometown, don't go.it was highly recommended by an Indonesian tourist couple who we shared a table and swapped stories with at the earlier noodle shop. so we went hungry and excited. since it was our first day, we were not sure of the MTR stations and we were slightly disorientated. when we finally found our way, we were highly disappointed. everywhere everyone was selling seafood. expensive seafood. a Yong Chou fried rice was HKD37!!!!! after hunting in vain for food other than seafood and finding none, we resigned ourselves to one of the shops. we ordered the fried rice, a simple stir fry vege with garlic and a deep fried squid (which wasn't prepared by that shops cook, later we learned) and it cost us a large HKD190!! it was the single most expensive meal we had in those 5 days and the least delicious. all lessons must come at a price. we were thankful to have learnt it quickly and swiftly. the streets were strewn with poor imitations and expensive prices. we quickly got out of there. on the way out we saw many food courts. oh well.... when you are the foreigner, you can't escape paying the price for being new.
we got home, exhusted. ever since we landed in Hong Kong, we only sat down for less than 2hours. we fell asleep even before our heads touched the pillow.
~the end~
I was searching for good movies to watch. Recently I've seen some funny Singaporean shows like Where Got Ghost and Money No Enough 2, and they were pretty hilarious so I set about looking for Malaysian movies that I might enjoy.
That's when I stumbled upon filmmaker Amir Muhamad. And his films have a tendency of being banned in Malaysia.
The first film that got banned, The Last Communist, is a film supposedly inspired by communist party leader Chin Peng and is basically interviews with the people who shared the same hometown with him. The film takes a satirical approach by inserting songs modeled after propaganda music.
The second film that got banned, Apa Khabar Orang Kampung, is a show about a village of South Thailand where retired members of the communist party of neighbouring Malaysia goes about in their daily lives, inter spread with a Thai radio soap opera. There were no mention of the word communist in the whole film and its a continuation from The Last Communist, which may explain why it got banned (not really).
His latest film, Malaysian Gods, was spared the ban from Malaysian authorities, but instead they chose another tactic which is to limit screening from cinemas and TV, effectively banning the show without actually banning it. You can still buy a copy to watch at home, or have it screened on campus, which will definitely get the show right in front of the future generation of voters, where is matters most.
The film chronicles the key events leading to and after the sacking of Anwar Ibrahim and his subsequent trial by fire for corruption. The whole film is done in Tamil. It also chronicles the events of the past 10 years after the fated Reformasi protests.
The film manages to reveal that, among the older generations there is a guarded reservation when it comes to airing their thoughts, while the younger generation is more vocal and less afraid to give their opinions on the matter, indeed this will be the new political landscape and against all this, dry satirical humour perpetuates the film
The director has announced a hiatus from filmmaking, and this will probably be his last film for a long time to come, seeing as to how he never gets a chance to screen any of his documentaries to the public at large. However, he has found a willing audience down north at the Singapore International Film Festival, and I hope to be able to enjoy this film soon.
You can download Apa Khabar Orang Kampung from:
http://rapidshare.com/files/270087651/Village_People_Radio_Show_-_Amir_Muhammad.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/270105792/Village_People_Radio_Show_-_Amir_Muhammad.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/270398685/Village_People_Radio_Show_-_Amir_Muhammad.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/270413993/Village_People_Radio_Show_-_Amir_Muhammad.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/270441120/Village_People_Radio_Show_-_Amir_Muhammad.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/270458538/Village_People_Radio_Show_-_Amir_Muhammad.part6.rar
Read http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_450337.html for background.
Let's start off with some statistics. Singapore's Marine Industry is the backbone of their economy generating S$18.7 billions dollars of manufacturing output in 2008 alone. The marine cluster which consists of some 3000 companies provide 20 per cent for ship repair, 70 per cent for jack-up rig builds and 70 per cent for the conversion of Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) units in the world.
Back when I was interning at Keppel FELS, the company had three yards around the west area. I'm sure there are some historical reason behind the separation but anyway I think it would have been more convenient for everything to be in one centralized location. A colleague once related to me that during the SARS crisis few years ago, they had half the engineering office working at a separate location; in case of a quarantine, at least only 50% of the staff will be affected (the other 50% will be in for one heck of a working week). However after a period of time, everybody was pulled back because it was just too much of a hassle (or maybe the risk had lowered enough, who knows).
However the Integrated Yard seems like a nice idea from Sembcorp Marine. It's size is a massive 206ha, or about 490 football fields combined! It will be doing pretty much everything from rig building, ship repair, conversion, etc. From an efficiency standpoint, bringing everything under one location will definitely improve logistic cost and allow for more efficient use of personnel. It's an interesting idea but with no firm completion deadline (yet).
Keppel Corp on the other hand have enjoyed huge profits following the S$13 billion of contracts back in 2008. A year later, with many of rigs delivered, it is now looking at securing S$2 billion or more from Petrobras next year, which will keep the yards busy from 2013 through to 2018. However, Brazil has historically requested that a percentage of the rig construction activities carried out with local content. Nonetheless, the whole company stand to gain a huge opportunity to increase their contract orders if the deal goes through in 2010. Which is just nice because that's when I graduate =P.
This deserves its own entry.
When i heard that MJ died, i was under alot of pressure back then. didnt get a chance to have a good cry. he deserves that much. after speaking to a lot of people only i realized how lucky i was. a lot of people knew who MJ was. heard his songs. knew what he was famous for. i have real memories of watching him perform. no, i didnt go to his concerts but i watched him perform on tv all the time. i had his DVDs which i watch so often i know his videos by hard. i memorized his songs. i was a real fan. most people i talked to didnt have that. they missed the magic that was a big part of my childhood before i was 7 years old.
MJ was working hard for his comeback show. all sold out. all the hype. most people just wanted to see him fall and say "I told you so". Few wanted him to succeed. thats huma nature. Bad press sells more than good press. Hollywood is so superficial.
when i heard that he died, i was shocked and upset. but at the back of my mind, i thought, "At least he didnt perform and become a laughingstock. at least he died with whatever dignity he had left.". i loved MJ but i didnt think a 50year oldman who hasnt performed in decades could just pick up where he left off. when he was famous, there was only 1 MJ. no one could do the Moonwalk. no one moves like him. nowadays theres SO MANY!
what if he got up to stage and performed less than they did?
i wanted to remember him as the dancer who made me go AWWWWWW when i was 5.
when i heard that the movie was coming out, i thought that it was just a ploy, a scam by Sony and all those companies who felt cheated cos they invested in someone who died before the big bucks came in.
i was thinking, if he was going to be bad during the show, what more when he was filmed practising?
even so, i was a huge fan and i just had to see for myself what happened to my idol the last few months of his life.
it was like a time warp. he didnt change. the way he moved, the way he sang, it was as if im 5 again.
he was perfect. he redid some things and updated parts that werent so relevant anymore. you can see how hard he is working all the time. everything he did, he did it for the fans. you can tell, working for him is a whole new experience you cant get with any other stars. for one, he is hands on. he has to be there for every single thing. every tempo, every light, every cue. theres not a song rehersal that he did without dancing, testing his moves to perfection. he did nothing halfway. he had to have everything exactly the same way ALL the time.it is... you cant help but admire his dedication. no song was too small, even a simple hand gesture or where the musician stood mattered. all eyes of course would be on him when he performs but he cares that the audience would be able to see the guitarist face.
he genuinely cares.
he is so sweet...so soft and gentle all the time.
from the way everyone treats him, you can tell he is like this fragile little flower. no one raises their voices, no one contradicts him, everyone is patient. its like dealing with a child. and i believe that is MJ's mindstate. he never matured into adulthood. which is why he loves children. they are his maturity level. which is why i believe he never did any of those horrible unspeakable things. children dont molest other children.
you can tell also that the way he composes his music, his moves developed differently from others. he gets a vision of something. when he thinks its perfect, he will work towards it until he sees the perfection. those who work with him know better than to do other than what he say. and they can see the genius of his idea.
all his dancers are well built, professional and the best in the world.
they also look like they came out of a dancer factory. all muscles and funky hairstyles, suave, smooth...
take a look at MJ. he is thin as a stick and fair (vampire like) and he doesnt have an inch of muscle on him. he doesnt exagerrate his moves like his dancers. which makes him stand out in the crowd. he is slick,fast,and cool. his moves have not been compensated by his age.
what else can i say?
they filmed new videos for the concert. to be played at the screen on certain songs. all of them were wonderful. not too much graphic til it looks like a video game but the made 11 people into 11 000 people. that was awesome.
last month i saw an expose saying that MJ was using 8 different kind of heavy usage drugs for many years now. go watch the show. he did not look like a drug addict at all. he made jokes, danced while dealing with the sound crew, sang live while dancing around like a monkey..he was lucid. as lucid as can be. he didnt even look 50!
certainly wasnt dancing like one.
i thought it was a tragedy that he died before he could regain his dignity and performed 50nights in front of his fans. to feel loved again. back into his glory days.
now i know that it was a blessing he died. if it werent for his timely death, the whole world would not have been able to see him in his glory.
instead of making his comeback on a stage in London, he made a comeback on the big screens. the whole world watches it simutaneously everyday,many times a day for 2 whole weeks. and later i can watch anytime i want on my illegally downloaded HD version.
so Michael, rest in peace. you have reclaimed your dignity and your fame. even in death
PS: today i celebrate 800 happy days with my darling.was going to write a post about it but i decided MJ was a better post
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
damn damn DAMN!!!!
my stupid SE had a glitch. when i cleared my outbox, it deleted my inbox!!!
i had 600+ messages inside my inbox. i bought my phone roughly 2 years ago and i have always kept messages which meant alot to me. each sweet message would be kept and appreciated from time to time. and now they are all GONE!!!!
T_T
2years worth of memories.....T_T
every staged of my relationship had its perks....
my darling was so sweet when he tried to get me interested in him....
he was very infactuated when we first started.....
when he was apart from me, faraway in sabah, he would send me messages that would make a stone melt....
when he was working in singapore, he would make it up to me all day with loving words.... and funny stories....
when we fought, harsh words are exchanged but not as much as words which allows us both to realize what the other really means....i keep those to remind me that no 2 person are the same and that we all require a little understanding now and then.
now it is all gone......T_T
i mourn the loss of memories..... from my darling, from my father, my mother, my goodlooking brother, i mourn the messages where my bestfriend told me how she misses me sitting beside her in class, how we used to hangout all the time.... haha even the one where she would buy me a bell if i were a cute cow....dont ask me how that conversation started.....i dont know.
im not one of those who sit by the corner and read 2year old messages all day... but i am sentimental to the core....sigh
i know what people say.... sometimes you have got to throw the old memories away to make room for new ones.
a sense of relief did come after the grief left.
its like ive been given a new.... a second chance.....
i had bad and good memories in my handphone...memories that can still cause hurt when i read it.... but now i aspire to keep good memories and ncver to make another bad one.....
today happened to be 1 of our anniversaries, i hope it is a good omen =)
Today I celebrate my 26th month anniversary!!! Whee~!!!!
Its been a long run….. never thought I would make it this far. We have had quite a number of obstacles and… we made it!
Hehe
My time in university is almost over. Life is getting harder and the things we learn are getting more and more complicated. My carefree life of a minimum responsibility person is coming to an end. Soon, I am an ADULT *gasp*
It is going to be the longest period of my life. 30 odd years before I can claim my retirement. People often refer to that stage in life as the golden years. Really? Being old and your body not being as reflexive as it used to be, having everything droop, all the abuses you inflicted onto your body is now coming back to haunt you…. Doesn’t seem like much of golden to me.
God forbid should any long term disease befall onto you. Or your partner. When I see an old lady or an old man who has lost their partner long time ago, I feel very sad. When you have worked hard all your life and saved up all that money so that you both can travel and do all the things you had to put on hold while raising your kids, suddenly being left all alone to do those things isn’t really quite the same….
It’s not often you find that one companion who gets along with you so well and care about you so much. The bed remains too empty for you alone. So get more pillows!!!! Hehe
Someday, not too far from now, I hope I don’t have to go to bed alone anymore. I think I can safely dream about those days now.
my crazy semester is almost done....
thanks to my teammates. to be honest this semester they helped me out alot.
i guess next semester i really need to buck up and get dirty with them.
im just so tired. my last holiday was.....december. perhaps the xoming 8weeks holiday will renew my will to complete this degree and chuck it to hell.
ive met amazing lecturers and ive met amazing lecturers. lecturers who i dont know how they even managed to become lecturers.
im too exhausted to be lecturer bashing lolz.
this post is dedicated to those who helped me thru the last 3weeks. man,it felt like 2months.
you guys are the greatest!!!!!
