Thursday, March 26

Things to do during Earth Hour

Earth Hour 2008 was a malu-fying event for Malaysians. Don't believe me?
Click here




This year, with corporate companies and shopping malls participating in this event, let's give Earth an hour of rest.

So, u wanna join the crowd in this community blackout happening this Saturday at 8:30 p.m but at the same time wondering how u'd survive without TV and Internet for an hour?




Before this happens, here's some ideas on how to spend the 60 minutes:

1. Start early. Switch off before the sun sets and soak up the twilight.
2. Go for a walk and see what the neighbours have switched off.
3. Or turn on all the lights in every room and see how long it takes before someone knocks on your door.
4. At which point, you can host an Earth Hour Party: BYO (beeswax!) candle and no plastic cups.
5. One word: Fondue! You get a great meal, no electricity required.
6. Chill your wine outside.
7. Hand-wash your delicates.
8. Harness the combined romance of candlelight and eco-chivalry to pop the question.
9. Dig out your clarinet, ocarina or guitar for an acoustic music night. Practise without looking at your hands.
10. Debate whether one hour can trigger social change.
11. Or just whistle in the dark.
12. Recite memorized poetry.
13. Avoid using anything that requires power. Including batteries.
14. Throw an indoor marshmallow roast (use shish-kebab skewers, mini-marshmallows and a tea light).
15. Go totally 18th-century and play charades by candlelight.
16. Look for stars in the darker night sky, or moon dance.
17. Read a book about the environment.
18. Tell ghost stories. Go down to the basement in a negligee to investigate dark spooky corners.
19. Build a fort out of cushions and blankets (don't take candles inside!).
20. Bust out the Ouija board, host a séance.
21. Dig out your Dungeons and Dragons dice for an atmospheric apocalyptic game.
22. Don't be lame and watch television.
23. Prove to yourself that, yes, you can go 60 minutes without updating your Facebook status. 24. Don't forget fitness. Practise naked yoga.
25. Conserve water. Share a bath.
26. Or go to bed early. *Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.
27. Consider getting some help if the results of No. 26 only took one minute.
28. Spin a globe to find your next holiday destination.
29. Tuck yourself & your love one in bed for an (extra) hour *cough*
30. Star gazing picnic. Or beach picnic and look at the stars that night.
31. Watch the fireflies fly! (Kampung Kuantan in Kuala Selangor)
32. Reject the idea, string yourself in Xmas lights, and walk around as a glowing sculpture.


More on the latest happenings of Earth Hour here

Tuesday, March 24

Sunburst Music Festival 2009

The annual SUNBURST Music Festival is back!




Got there in time for the moon to start showing up due to the jam in the city.....




Speed Zone's Red Dome - Joey G on the deck with some F1 simulators inside





Was chillin' out when a friend told Leo and I to swap our spectacles and the hat....
Now this is exclusive as u'll only get to see it ONCE.... I call it 'the swap'






so here we are.


Any similarities?



Anyway, after bummin' around the polo field, we made our way to the Silent Disco Arena and found everything to be 'muted'.


It was so quiet at this corner, u can almost hear the crickets.






Here we are at the Silent Disco where everyone's on headphones




Looks really weird if one were to walk past this place as people are head-banging in a silent atmosphere.




Over at the sun & sky stage, here's what's happenin' :




Crowd cheers on with N.E.R.D on stage

Pharrell Williams; the frontman of N.E.R.D got the crowd happily 'bouncing' for an hour before the band everybody was waiting for took over on the other stage.



Crowd went wild when KORN came on stage




Jonathan Davis and the band opened with Right Here, Right Now.

The hyped up crowd started head-banging and body-slamming almost immediately which then turned into a mosh pit.


Though it's so-NOT my type of music, nevertheless, I enjoyed myself looking at the crazy rock fans get F***ed around by KORN....*lol

Here's some bits for all you KORN fans out there:






By the way, a member of KORN left the band sometime last year for the real ROCK in our lives.

Yups, he got saved & turned away from his KORNy acts. *lol

Monday, March 23

@Dessert's Bar

Spent my Saturday snacking at Dessert's Bar with Phoebe.






Since both of us are curious to try out the food there and also to 'rescue' little miss Phoebe from her 'chap-fan dilemma', we agreed to go check out the much talked about Dessert's Bar located in the Golden Triangle




The voucher entitles us to 5% off the total bill & also 10% of the sales will go towards City Harvest - Arise & Build.




One of the many creatively-designed menu


So now we can stuff ourselves knowing that the more we eat, the more funds will go towards Arise & Build.

First up:

Uber-delicious fruit smoothies

Main Course:

The highly recommended Monte Sandwich





Check out the menu, I'm indeed 'brave' to be eating it.. *laughs*


Desserts:

Banana cake with ice-cream & Lychee+strawberry cake



Spent like 3 hours catching up on loads of stuff after the filling snack...... *burps*

We ordered another round of drinks, TEA that is..



Queen's Tea & Honey-Lemon Tea




Here's Phoebe making her 'honey-lemon' tea


Phoebe playing 'masak-masak' with her cuppa tea



And by the way, bubbly, babyface Phoebe's a vocal powerhouse currently involved with The Canticle Singers.




Phoebe & I at Dessert's Bar




Gotta leave soon after to head over to KLCC for the iPhone launch.

Thursday, March 19

iPhone 3G in Malaysia!

After all the hype about the iPhone...I finally got my hands on it's latest 3G model.
Just to try out that is.


Cool user interface thats sure to attract plenty of attention




Thanks to my bro, I got to experience its fantabulous much talked about User Experience compared to other iPhone wannabe's like my 5800 XpressMusic.

Just by having the iPhone at hand, I suddenly realized that my 'look-cool' factor has increased; so much even if you have really low self-esteem or that sort, having an iPhone would've raised ur coolnest factor by a 100% !!..*lol



Apple iPhone vs Nokia 5800 XpressMusic



Unlike the 5800, the iPhone uses a capacitive resistive touch scren and requires bare skin to activate its interface.



This unit comes preloaded with a truckload of cool goodies (Apps, Magic Tricks, etc)




Shiny black brushed metal back thats prone to smudges just like the ipod




Not gonna ruin it all by revealing too much details here, as you should go check out its launching by Maxis this weekend at KLCC.

For full tech specs of the iPhone 3G, read here

Saturday, March 14

Validation

"Validation" is a fable about the magic of free parking.



Starring TJ Thyne & Vicki Davis. Writer/Director/Composer - Kurt Kuenne. Winner - Best Narrative Short, Cleveland Int'l Film Festival, Winner - Jury Award, Gen Art Chicago Film Festival, Winner - Audience Award, Hawaii Int'l Film Festival, Winner - Best Short Comedy, Breckenridge Festival of Film, Winner - Crystal Heart Award, Best Short Film & Audience Award, Heartland Film Festival, Winner - Christopher & Dana Reeve Audience Award, Williamstown Film Festival, Winner - Best Comedy, Dam Short Film Festival, Winner - Best Short Film, Sedona Int'l Film Festival.





Do watch it, u definitely wouldn't regret on this one.









Now... *smile* =)

Wednesday, March 11

Ipoh - Lotsa Food & A Wedding [part 2]

Woke up in Ipoh to a hungry stomach on Day 2 overlooking the land of awesome food and limestone hills.






View of the Ipoh Race Track from my room





Headed downtown Ipoh for the famous 'heong peng' followed by a visit to this shop which has been operating for the last 50 odd years!



That's Dariel cheerfully posing amongst the very tasty biscuits





My cousin - Cathy; buying loads of biscuits ranging from those that I've not seen for the last 10 years or so in the market.

Remember those small little hard-icing top biscuits, and the 'yee-chai-peng'?.. Yeah..it's all still sold here! And thats the shop owner who proudly claims that they've sold a certain type of biscuits for the last 51 years, when asked whether the biscuits were tasty.


Headed for brunch at some coffee shop in the corner of town where they serve really awesome-ly delicious yong tau foo and toast bread. It was so good, we ordered twice of the same food with Leo even ordering a whole bowl of those green chilli's with stuffed meat!



It's back to KL happily after all the food to soon realize that we've gotta find the lyrics and practice to a song that we last sang together when we were 12 years old! And we're finally doing it again tonite..after all these years.





Here we are, at the dinner venue in Tropicana.



The groom & I





My dad & I with the newly-weds after the 'tea-session'





Our cousins and aunts




Our gracious host for the weekend - Cathy & Dariel


Continuing the evening with the usual wedding dinner, cake-cutting, wine-pouring,..then came our 'moment'.


Our song
; -first and last heard back in the summer holidays in the early 90's is making a come back on this special occasion of Kristin's wedding

So here we are, reunited in a song:




The evening then continued with more yam-seng's and photo session...




Altogether now.... "Yammmmm-SennnnggggGGGGG"









Last but not least, meet Chien Hui, Kristin's cousin. Well, she's like the one and only cousin of Kristin that I've ever remembered....




Look at what a beauty she is now:







We used to spend our holidays together back in the innocent days and the last time we've met was like....ancient years..! *laughs*

Guys: Stop staring already!

Girls: Look at me instead.. =)

Tuesday, March 10

Ipoh - Lotsa Food & A Wedding [part 1]

Went to Ipoh for a food trip my cousin's wedding over the weekend with my bro and cousin.

Reach Ipoh just slightly before noon and went straight to where the famous "satay-intestines" were sold. Among the food we sapu were the super smooth hor-fun, juicy taugeh's, curry mee and popiah..
One just couldnt imagine what a glutton we could be...we were so full and stretched in our bellies after a quick meal like that.



These are the Ipoh "must-have" dishes




After the sumptious brunch, we took a drive around the very scenic Ipoh and headed towards Taiping.



Traffic in Ipoh is seriously SLOW...with everyone just cruising along not rushing anywhere.



We then went 'long-kai' in classic Taiping for about an hour or so before heading back to Ipoh in its most jammed-up hour!..







Got caught in the after-hours jam (can't believe there's actually jam in downtown Ipoh) back to our hotel before freshening up for the wedding dinner....



YUP..thats what we're actually here for; my cousin's wedding! *laughs*



Here's a pix of my cousin - Kristin with the love of her life - Irving.

Kristin & Irving




Leo & I with Kristin & Irving


Bride & Groom with their parents.




Cathy & I with the newly-weds





After the dinner....... we went for MORE FOOD!!! ... this time at the famous roadside hawker stalls that's famous for their
tong sui & mussels (si-ham)




Check out the fresh mussels, dipped into spicy chilli sauce.

...to be continued...