paddington pancakes

finally, we've been to paddington pancakes at the curve today. the food is really what people said about where it does taste very good and you'll be amazed with the number of pancake varieties in the menu. the only problem that we find is that the menu is too messy for someone visiting for the first time.

auld lang syne 2005

The Year-End Stock Take, originally uploaded by Max L Fly.

it's the last day of the year 2005 and i almost lost my voice. poor me again!! i felt it coming couple of days ago and i started taking cough mixture and drink tons of water but it ain't good enough. after watching the show 'king kong' yesterday night, my voice immediately turned crappy. guess i'll have to try another remedy or worst case to see my doc again. :(

year 2005 was just an average year for me as things has been good and bad the whole year. the very bad thing was i'm down with illness countless times. it's almost every month, one of the viruses will come and pay me a visit. oh boy!! i remember when i was in oz those days, none of the viruses came to me even once during my 2 years stay there. the weather back then must be very good for me. perhaps, i should go back there one day. hehehehehe!!!

countdown party tonight? well, not too sure yet as no plans have been made so far. one thing i am sure is that me and sm will be meeting up with j and lw in the curve later for lunch. yay!! we'll be going to paddington pancakes after hearing all the good recommendations and review from both websites and friends. will it make my voice even worst? well, i hope not otherwise i would be lying on the bed for the rest of the long weekend.

well, i would like to wish everyone especially friends and family a 'Happy New Year' and bid farewell to 2005. let's all pray that 2006 will be a greater and better year for everyone of us. cheers!!!

last working day of the year

3686 - Last Exit - Rio Haina, originally uploaded by -pdp-.

today will be my last working day for the year 2005. there's been ups and downs throughout the year in this company that i have been working for 2 years. being almost the longest serving employee, i've seen lots of good people leaving and coming on board. things haven't been better since and all i could hope for is a better year in 2006.

the right thing

teaching recognizes the right, originally uploaded by Christian's.

as most of you have already know that the nations are rushing for the 31st deadline to get their identification card replaced with MyKad. some of you might have encountered before that the officials weren't treating the nations with the right attitude but for this time, they just kept cool and calm the whole time. well done guys!!! you've done the right thing.

having the right attitude, the nations mistreated them with verbal abuses till the cops have to be called in. this round of frustration is definitely caused by the nations themselves and could only have themselves to be blamed for. everyone in the country were given tons of time to get their identification card replaced but as usual with their 'last minute' mentality, everyone just waited till the last week of the year. i seriously do not understand why is it so hard to spare a day in the entire year to get the thing done and most of all it's free of charge.

otherwise, just pay the fine and get it done after the new year. why wanna go through the hassle of waking up at 3 or 4am in the morning and start queing at 5am. it's just so ridiculous!!!

city explorer

yesterday, mom woke me up at 1030am as they're about to leave home for brunch and some shoppings for my aunty in new zealand. i didn't really have enough sleep as me and my cousin had a late night the previous day watching SPL on dvd. it's definitely a good movies and that's the only time i've ever watched sammo hung as a bad guy. highly recommeneded. i was quite grumpy at first as i only went to bed around 430am. oh well, aunty and cousin is around, better to join the fun than sitting alone at home. after cleaning up myself and off we go to bukit bintang area where sg wang is our first destination.

it was jammed packed with cars and people everywhere around that area. me and my cousin dropped the rest off at sg wang while we went looking for a park as most of it is filled. we then decided to park at lot 10 and to our surprised, they still have tons of spaces left. maybe there's still a lot of people didn't know the parking rate on weekends and public holidays is charged per entry. to me, it's one of the cheapest place to park in bukit bintang area apart from times square. had lunch at this malay restaurant called 'restoran bintang' at the roof top food court of sg wang before our shopping starts. we were supposed to look for a blouse from this magazine cut-out and it's very british india or east india type of design. went to a couple of boutiques in sg wang and metrojaya but unfortunately, there wasn't any or probably out of the season.

later, my cousin suggested those shops in jalan masjid india as sometimes it can be found there. we then took a monorail ride from lot 10 to medan tuanku station and it cost rm1.40 each. this is the first time i ever been on a monorail since it's service started for sometime. as usual, it's packed in and out of the train and even the station. the ride to medan tuanku was smooth except some minor vibrations when going into corners. we hopped off at medan tuanku and continue walking towards jalan tuanku abdul rahman where sogo and pertama complex is situated. the weather was humid but luckily it isn't bright, sunny and flaming hot. as we strolled along jalan tuanku abdul rahman, i saw this caterpillar excavator with a t-rex jaw demolishing a high rise building. the amazing thing is that how did they managed to get the giant machine that weighs more than 50 tonnes up to the top of the building. can a helicopter do that? well, i don't think so. we stood there for a couple of minutes looking at the building been torn apart. we then continued our look around until we reached jalan masjid india on foot. went to couple of stores there as well and we just can't find what we're looking for.

at the end of jalan masjid india, there was this bazaar that sells exactly the same items as in petaling st. there were a lot of foreigners selling items such as clothing, household equipments, bags, leather goods and etc etc along the back alley of a main road that leads you to jalan tun perak. apart from the chinese community setting up their business in petaling st, this is where the malay and indians do business on the other side of the city. besides the bazaar, all along jalan tuanku abdul rahman and jalan masjid india were filled with stores that sells textiles, clothing and most of them were quite middle-eastern to indian type of designs. they even have turkish scarfs and persian carpets. well, if you're looking for something like that, head down to that area.

as we approach jalan tun perak, we catch a lrt service from masjid jamek station and got off at hang tuah station. our lrt conditions were ok and rubbish is at minimal level. after we got off from the lrt, we strolled along the pudu jail till we reached times square. along pudu jail, there were parts of the barb wires that left hanging by the wall, my cousin checked them out and they're still as sharp as razor blade. we then stopped by at borders in times square for a quick look around for books before heading back to lot 10 for dinner. we went to this restaurant called 'Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao' that serves chinese authentics such as dim sums. they even served variety of ramens that tasted simply delicious. i first tried their ramen last week in takashimaya, singapore and got to know they have an outlet in kl. it's really bad that i didn't managed to take any photos due to my mobile ran out of battery.

after dinner, we realised that we actually did what a normal city people wouldn't do by exploring the other side of the city by foot and rail for hours on a humid day. i reckon that it's really a good experience though especially you get to see different kinds of people and the things they sell. i think for the whole day, we spend about 8 to 9 hours without using our own transportation which is a good achievement on not relying on self-owned transport.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2006!!

O Christmas Tree Originally uploaded by mv0168

350d is back

finally, i've got back my 350d after 2 weeks of under repair work. actually, my 350d was only sent it for repair on wednesday after i've submit it 2 weeks ago. it must have been travel all around the world. the good thing is that, the camera is back with me but the bad thing was they left the battery at the service center.

at the mean time, i've got a loan battery from the shop where i bought my camera from for a week till i get my original battery back. this loan battery will survive me for a week in singapore and jb. it's been a while since i last shoot some photos and i just can't wait to shoot somemore. these are the shots that i took after my 350d is recovered.

their home addons

went to pet safari yesterday and got some addons to our hamster's home. bought a connectors pack and a loft to enlarge their environment. we only managed to set it up today and both of them are still learning to climb the loft and also the sky restaurant. skinny did the first try but didn't managed to go all the way up to the loft. since their of the roborovski (dwarf) breed, it'll be a bit hard to climb especially with their smaller size.

gtr r34 spotted!

whilst driving to town yesterday, i spotted a black nissan skyline r34 heavily modified. from the back of it, it look as wide as a ferrari 360 modena. man!! that thing cost more than rm300k and yet people can still afford it.

our rodent have their names

yup!!! both out hamsters have got their names officially as of today. the fatty one is called 'Chubby' while the skinny one is still called 'Skinny'. both of them were hyperactive especially in the wheel but when they're lazy, they can sleep for hours. one of our colleague kept saying hamsters does bite, didn't really believe it especially they are at such a young age until today, sm was bitten by Chubby after she tried to lure him onto her hands. so far it didn't happen to me. prolly they like me more than sm as i watch and play with them everyday. hehehehehe!!! we are also trying to get them more toys and addons for them to run-a-about as they are so active.

ups and downs

theres ups and downs for me today as for the first half of the day, it's all downs after my camera gave way that i had to sent it back for repair and ruined my plan of shooting some photos at the kl convention center. after getting the camera stuffs sorted out, we went looking for some habitrail cage's connectors and addons. not much luck as we only managed to get one connector and later we found out that, we bought at a higher price.

later was supposed to drop by at the pc fair to pick up some dvd-r media for myself and pixel. this is the first time we've been to the kl convention center. building structures was nicely build to an international standard. unfortunately, there isn't any proper signboards to lead a person into the parking bay. in the building, hardly there's any floor indicator and directions were poor. the best signs i've seen in there was the restroom sign where it's big enough for one to look out from far.

the ups happened all in the fair where both of us made a couple of purchases and the best deal that i got was subscribing to stuffs magazine for year that cost rm80 and i was given a logitech cordless optical mouse for free that worth more than a years magazine subscription. we were also invited to play a game there and both our score is good enough to win a consolation prize according to the guy. sm finally got a 256mb sd card for her digital camera while i got myself a logitech bluetooth headset that is compatible for mobile phones, laptops and pc. that's prolly the ups when i get to buy something but i think when it comes to pay my bills, that's a bit down!! hehehehehe!!!

350d broke down

it was a sad day today as my 2 months old canon 350d broke down all of a sudden. me and sm was supposed to head down to the kl convention center for pc fair. at the same time, i would also like to take a few shots of the newly build structure located just next to the klcc twin tower. we left home around 1030am and had to meet a person to collect sm's defect headphone. while waiting in the car, i took out my camera and started shooting the surroundings. as a beginner in digital photography, i try to use the manual settings as much as possible to polish up my skills.

first shot was excellent. second was great. the third shot was the disaster when the entire thing broke down. i was trying to take a close-up shot in my car and after snapping it, the shutter did not open back to its normal position. at first, i thought that i must have set a longer shutter delay but after a couple of minutes, it's all bad. i tried switching it off and on again, it didn't help at all. tried removing the battery and memory card, it didn't gave me any response.

as a newbie to digital slr, i called up my friend and started asking for solutions. he was surprised on what had happened and he advised me to send it back to the place i purchased the camera. went to the shop in town, the owner was kind enough to find out the possibilities of why it stop responding. what makes it worst is that, not just the camera is not responding but the battery is dead too. oh crap!!! what the heck is wrong with canon now!!! eventually, it had to be send back to the main service center to get it repaired. oh man!!! what a day for me!!! the shop owner said that it should be all good in few days time.

as the day goes on, i suddenly recalled of reading a forum posting on canon 350d software crashing with lexar memory card. probably, that's one of a reason why it failed but the good thing is canon has already found a solution for that by upgrading the cmos software. well, hopefully it's all good when the camera comes back in a couple of days time.