Christmas Day 2007

Almost missed church today. Found out from Angeline the day before the service was at 10am and I woke up around 9.45am. Had my breakfast and drove to church... reached there around 10.30am. Yes, Penang is a small island.

Of course, I was one of the last to arrive. There's this portugese guy with his oboe on stage, playing some familiar Christian songs.

church was packed

Preacher for the day was someone from The Baptist Siminary in Batu Feringghi. Then Pastor Isaac took over the mic for the alter call prayer.

Pastor Isaac and his colour coordinated mic

Once service ended, it was catching up time with friends and we headed to Swatow Lane and ate at the New World food court for lunch. The place just opened a couple of months back.

Good crowd

The popular stall was of course the ice - kacang stall - shall blog about it in separate entry.

After food, we took a walk around the place. There are a ciouple of restaurants over there as well.

Western Cuisine

Nonya Cuisine

Dumplings

tea spa with thai food... hmm....

banana leaf cuisine


Starbucks

If anyone wants to visit this place, it's at Burmah Road. Just be on the lookout for the Wesley Methodist Church and Penang Plaza - it's nearby.

She is back

Good to have you back!

Have you been missing this while away?



Welcome back to Malaysia!

I'll be home for Christmas..

Took the afternoon flight on Christmas eve. Thank God for Fire Fly - Air Asia came up with the ridiculous price of RM5 one way back to Penang. Add in all the taxes and surcharge, it costs less than RM50. Also, was fortunate to meet Angeline Cheah and her family from my home church in Penang on the same flight. So I had a companion going home too.

I always enjoy sitting near the wings

It's an AirBus I think

Did you know that Air Asia claims to have the best Nasi Lemak? I was tempted to try it. The air stewardesses came with the food and everything and they stopped right before me to serve this foreign tourists. Being a nice person, I patiently waited for them to ask me, while making sure I was making eye contact with the air stewardess. Then, when they had served the passengers behind me, they just pushed the cart away without asking me. Angeline and I were looking at each other wondering how come the lady didn't ask me. It was very obvious I kept turning to look at what they were doing. In retrospect, perhaps she might have thought I was checking her out.... O well, will try the nasi lemak next time.

Flight was on schedule, so I reached Penang 2.30pm and waited for OCD to fetch me. He had left for Penang on Friday on a bus.

Penang International Airport... or is it Bayan Lepas International Airport?

After picking me up with mom, we headed to town centre to do some stuff. And as expected, the whole Penang was jammed with cars.

Stupid kancil driver trying to jump queue

Since I was kinda free, I went trigger-happy and took some random pics.

This shop on Penang Road has been around for ages

Campbell Street, also known as Chinatown

school bags for sale on Campbell Street

To discourage beggars from sleeping around, MPPP(local council) came up with this

Some shops in Chinatown has embraced the internet age... WEBSITE!

The building looks pre-war, right at the junction of the road famously known as "kua cha ke"(coffin road)

Gama has been here since 1967, barely surviving


Coming soon: Penang Time Square


An old tailoring shop on Jalan Datuk Keramat

Arguably the best school in Penang, if not Malaysia- CHUNG LING

Before going home, we stopped by a chinese medical hall to buy for medicine for my ankle. I sprained my right ankle teaching BODYATTACK last Wednesday and the chinese physician from Taman Megah prescribe the medicine. Supposed to soak my feet with it for around 30 minutes.

RM4.50 per packet

In the late evening, I took the opportunity to visit the Monday pasar malam near my home.

I've not been to this place for a very long time


Still a popular place


Used to buy charpati for Dad back when he was still around


20sen per pc


ate this variation of Penang laksa, known also as Laksa Utara


ordered ice-blended milo from this boy


apom - 50 sen per pc

Ahh... good to be home. :)

First Asian Idol

In case you didn't know, last weekend they had this competition in Indonesia to crown the first Asian Idol. Funny though, considering the fact you have only representations from Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, The Phillipines, and India.

Anyhow I only managed to watch the results show on Sunday. Apparently in order to vote, each sms must vote for 2 countries or it doesn't count. Kinda makes sense. Otherwise, the country with the highest population with mobile phones may just win hands down.

Hady looks hot

Anyhow, I mentioned to gf Singaporean Idol Hady has good showmanship, but most likely wasn't gonna win if he were to rely on his countrymen for votes.

Minutes before the results were announced, the hosts asked a few of the judges who they thought would win, and the bet was on the Indonesian Idol Mike or our very own Jacklyn Victor. One judge(can't remember who), however, said something that made sense. He said we should always be prepared for upsets as it could always happen. "Yeah," I was thinking to myself, "Remember when Daniel won? His win is probably the reason why 8TV cancelled Malaysian Idol. Lucky he didn't representing Malaysia or it's gonna be embarassing..."

so girly....

And true enough, it was a night of upsets as Liverpool and Chelsea lost their matches to Man Utd and Arsenal respectively, but that's another story. For Asian Idol, the winner was HADY.

"OMG.... I won!"
He looked totally shocked to find out he's the winner. I bet Mike and Jacklyn wouldn't have the same reaction if either one of them was declared the winner.

And so, it was a happy ending for Hady, coming from the country with the smallest population, to become the first ever Asian Idol.

Kinda disappointed that Jackyln didn't win, but it was encouraging to see upsets happening in life. Suddenly I have this optimistic outlook as I step into 2008. Who knows... I may be getting an "upset win" soon also?

Marriage made in gym

Heartiest Congratulations to Bernsy and his new maid mate, Auntie Santhi! Who would've thought romance could blossom out of an agressive programme called BODYCOMBAT?

Moral of the story? So don't quit gym - you might not get married.

Returning soon

You will be inspired again!

Coming to an end

Just finished a phone conversation in the main studio of IOI Mall and this feeling of sadness just overwhelmed me. Time flies when you're having a good time. Just when things are about to change you'd begin to think about the things/people you come in contact with everyday.

IT'S SO HARD TO SAY GOODBYE TO YESTERDAY

How do I say goodbye to what we had?
The good times that made us laugh
Outweigh the bad.

I thought we'd get to see forever
But forever's gone away
It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

I don't know where this road
Is going to lead
All I know is where we've been
And what we've been through.

If we get to see tomorrow
I hope it's worth all the wait
It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

And I'll take with me the memories
To be my sunshine after the rain
It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.

And I'll take with me the memories
To be my sunshine after the rain
It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday

I'm too sexy

Just saw this on Santhi's blog:


Changing my clothes in the locker room will never ever be the same again....

Wedding

Towards the end of the year, a lot of people would just get married.... And so, 2 Sundays ago I had the pleasure of attending one grand wedding in Hilton KL. Who got married? My ex-colleague from my first job after graduation in Padini.

the reception

Honestly speaking, I usually not that excited about attending weddings but this one is different. It's the opportunity to catch up with my former team mates, some I have not met since 2000. Another reason also this wedding can be considered a diva's wedding, and the diva is the groom John.

John's family runs a business called New Convox. If you have never heard of the name, it's ok... chances are you have used stuffs supplied by his company, especially if you patron places like Secret Recipe - almost everything there is from New Convox. The chairs, tables, knives, spoons, plates etc.

the main table

Apparently couples are too busy on their own wedding night to take pictures with the guests. So, as a replacement....

cardboard stand-ins

The wedding was supposed to start at 8pm but we started around 8.30pm, quite early for a chinese wedding.

This is quite a big wedding with 70 tables. John invited his relatives, uni mates, ex-colleagues(which are only the Padini table people), other friends, company staffs, and business partners.

Chocolates!

Guess what we got as souvenirs from the wedding?

plates for you to bring home...

The initials... John & Fern Fern

This is one the rare occassions where the groom upstaged the bride. Usually the bride would change clothes a couple of times during the dinner, but this one John also changed his clothes to match his wife's.

the grand entrance

Anyone who knows John would say that he likes to talk. So having a wedding dinner is not a reason to stop talking....

"Thank you for coming..."

Food was good. After all, John is quite fussy about food- you'll never see John in a restaurant where the food sucks.

shark's fin soup in a pumpkin


One of the highlights was a video presentation of how much effort they took to take the wedding photos. For this, John flew an entire team to Langkawi Four Seasons Hotelfor three days... taking more than 1,000 pictures... talk about too much free time

The flight... looking like celebrities, complete with sunglasses

Most of the time, it was just chatting with my ex-colleagues about the good ol' times in Padini, sometimes sharing our funny moments with John.

eating prawns without getting your hands dirty

The last time I saw Annie was a couple of months back at the Curve and just had a small talk. I'd not seen her since she left Padini in 2000. Now she runs her own boutique in Cheras, with also a blog to sell her items online. Ladies, check out Pandora Gallery & Boutique.

Jojoe got married in Nov 2004 and is now a proud mother of 2. The first time I saw her was when she joined us to party at Bali(not the island but the old disco in Sunway). She was such a party animal back then! Still can't imagine her as a mother.

Annie, me & Jojoe

Met Alex in Singapore early this year when gf & I went to see The Phantom of the Opera. He's getting married too next month in Singapore... still undecided whether to attend his wedding down south or not. Was colleagues with him twice, first in Padini and later Giordano.

Alex and his fiance, Karen

Sim Jeng and wife Lisa(still in Padini) came late, as this dinner was their third one that night.

(clockwise from left to right)Karen, Alex, Eddie(Theng Theng's hubby), Theng Theng, Magic, someone I dunno who, Sim Jeng, Lisa, Annie, gf, me

If any of us in the picture looks familiar to you, it's probably we have served you before when you were shopping for clothes. We are among the 20 or so fresh graduates recruited by Padini in 1999 to set up the new brand PDI. I had a hand in setting up PDI outlets in Island Plaza, Kinta City, 1 Utama, Mid Valley, Bukit Raja, Mahkota Parade, JB City Square Padini Concept store. I also managed the Mid Valley outlet for 3 months when the outlet first opened.

Together with my current job, my time in PDI is one of the most fun-filled time of my working career. Being young and hip, we sometimes closed our shops at 10pm and then all went straight to clubbing. We had this bond as freshies with so many new things to experience in the working world, it was very good to meet up again after such a long time. Great, more people to invite should I get marriedHope there'll be more opportunities to meet like this...