GRA 2007 Year End Dinner

Just before I started to blog I did some calculations and found out that I have been taking part in Autocross for 4 years now. If you don't know what Autocorssing is then I suggest you read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocross and that would give you an idea of what it's all about.

I like driving, I really do. Though I do hate the jams, but who doesn't. So I'm doing some reflecting this year end to see where I've been and what I've accomplished. I still can't believe it's been 4 years already, time just slips away when you're not paying attention.

Last Friday was the 1st Annual GRA Year End Dinner that was held at Mont Kiara. A lot of familiar faces turned up and we had a blast. Watching the Videos from all 5 rounds, chatting with other super-duper fast drivers, watching a community come together to make Autocross a BIG thing. Lots of awards were given out, I received 2 awards myself. But Sifu Ivan took home the big one as GRA Champion 2007. Competition next year would be tougher as there are more experienced drivers coming into the Autocross world. There was also lucky draws and both Sweetie and I got some prizes.

I'll post some photos and videos next.

Christmas BBQ 2007

We were all invited to spend Christmas Eve with The Khongs. Ian decided to have a BBQ with drinks and all. They even provided games to keep everyone busy. Lol. Thanks Ian and Family.


Ian with his Christmas Prezzie from Sweetie, Zoey & Me

Courtesy of Admiral (who was a little high) kekeke.

...Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

GRA Round 5 2007 - Putrajaya

event in front of the Palace of Justice

Bigger and Better? No one thought it would be possible but it happened! GRA organizers Ian & Jiannin managed to pull off a street Auto-Cross event. Correct me if I'm wrong but it is the first street Auto-Cross I've taken part in. Started in the morning with Grass Class running where the novice drivers drove the wheels off their cars. Sweetie drove superbly in her Kelisa and finished 2nd in her class. Congratulations Sweetie.

sweetie in her Kelisa

It was suppose to according to the weather report, but it stayed dry and DARN HOT. Suby wasn't ready for action after the heart transplant and had to sit out this round. Sifu was kind enough to share his Big Red Chicken Wing with me so I could take part. Surprisingly I finished 3rd in class and Sifu bagged the championship by winning. There were more Subaru's around this time, 5 to be exact. I am expecting to see more next year :) Round 5 also marked the return of Hammond Lai who drove his Honda EK to victory and getting FTD and beating the Chicken Wing by just 0.02 seconds. Another big winner was Kenneth aka Tellytumby who bagged 2 wins and beating the Kelisas in both classes this time.

Ian in his Ford Focus Rally Car

Quite alot of people turned up to see the event. Even Mokhzani Mahathir showed up with his SuperCars, a Gallardo and a Zonda. A nice touch to the event and would have been better if they were displayed with the rest of the show cars in front of the tent. The event also had its share of dramas, 3-4 cars climbed the curb and 1 rogue car went the opposite direction of the track forcing the event to be stopped for a couple of minutes.

Overall the event was great! Can't wait to see what is in stored for 2008. Congratulations to all the winners and GREAT JOB to the organizers. A special special THANK YOU to my sifu Ivan for sharing his car.

some support from mah' Sweetie!

Birthday Shout Out : Tigella

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Nigel!

Suby's Back!

It feels nice to drive Suby once again. After roughly about 3 weeks in the shop, the boys worked on her new heart with priority. Now the problem with putting different version parts is you never know what might go wrong and I hope and pray nothing goes wrong. So far I've been driving her around and it's smooth sailing for now. The new EJ25 feels powerful even without boost but then again I have to run her in to at least 3000km before I can start pushing. But so far so good.

So last weekend I was down to see my 2 gals. I took the same Nice bus but decided to stop at the Duta toll cause Sweetie was on her way back. It was a first for me crossing from one end of the toll to the other. Kinda scary with all the cars coming up and passing by inches from your body. But I managed to get past in one piece. Took a slow drive through traffic back home and ordered dinner to be delivered. We also decided to give Zoey a fur cut and bath, which was interesting to do, having the buzz cutter is nice to use most of the time.

It was hard to believe but Sweetie never had a Christmas Tree before. I remember that I put the tree up at home every year. Ahh...maybe I'm just too lazy this year, but we got ourselves a small little tree and bought some decorations and lights. It's pweeety.

The rest of the weekend was spent with the gang and at the shop as I was stressing out with Suby having some issues before coming out of the shop. Plus I have to run in the car in time for GRA this coming weekend which will be held at Putrajaya main road. Yup different venue and location this time. But I don't think I'll be able to make enough trips to hit 3000km to run in the new heart. We'll see.

November 5th Weekend

Went for paintball on Friday evening and now both my legs are killing me. Not that I'd want to complain, I should be more fit than that. Anyways, office peepz made arrangements for Paintball at PISA and as usual people arrived late so we started late and it's kinda sad that there isn't enough lighting in the Close Quaters arena. But it was definately fun, I think I got shot about 6-7 times in total over 5-6 rounds. Too bad it's an expensive hobby, all good hobbies are sadly :(

I rushed home to take a shower and was dropped at the bus station. Booked the 9pm bus to KL to see my gals. muaks. Just as the bus got moving we got stuck in a jam that linked 5 lanes into 2 lanes which merges into 1 lane before joining the bridge of 2 lanes. It's just ridicilious, took us 1 hour to get past that bottle neck and got moving. I arrived at KTM around 2:30am and both Sweetie and Zoey picked me up. I didn't have dinner before boarding the bus and what I had from the onboard trip wasn't enough, we decided to order McD's delivery and munched till around 4am.

Woke up around 8am to feed Zoey, she was kinda scratching the door and waiting to be let out of the room. LoL. She finished her food and went to wake Sweetie up as the maid arrived to clean the house. In the afternoon we headed to the workshop to check on Suby, the new heart transplant was nearly done. We had lunch and headed to a nearby pets store to get some things for Zoey. 2x Fences and a Hair Trimmer, yea Sweetie has decided to learn how to cut the fur on Zoey so we can save money on Grooming. After that we headed to Segambut to look at a Half Cut Shop for some Suby parts. We headed home after that and after a shower we set off to KL to the club at Heritage row, Maison. They had a model show there and GRA cars were there on show as VIP's. Had a couple of drinks before headed for late dinner/supper time with the gang.

A laaaazzzzyyy morning. But I had to get up, I went to buy a bus ticket back to PG. On the way I picked up a loaf of bread and decided to cook some eggs and have bfast at home. Sweetie woke up eventually for brunch. We lazed around sammor before heading out to the Curve where we had dinner at a Vietnamese restraunt. Time seems to pass much faster when you're having fun and it was time I had to leave once again.

I arrived home around 2am and went straight to bed..zzzzz.

..the long weekend.. November 4th Weekend

Some people just don't know how to appreciate other people's time. This is a case of miscommunication and not being responsible enough.

I was suppose to attend training for this particular subject. So like always I get up, make myself coffee and have some biscuits to much on before leaving to the training center. But when I arrived, I found out that the training was actually postponed till sometime around January 2008!. Then I ask myself, how did I miss out news of it being postponed. I looked at my emails over and over again, I didn't find anything informing me about it being postponed. "How did this happen?" I ask myself. Since I had nothing else to do I went home and decided to just drive south to see my 2 gals and spend the rest of the week there. What I'm actually pissed off at is the fact that the training was suppose to be 6 days and split over 2 weeks. The week before on Friday, while I was driving some arse decided to rear end my car in a bumper to bumper jam! I wasted time going to the police station to submit my reports and all that crap. Spend another extra day to get a report that was not ready and another day to collect the report that was printed WRONGLY!

Sooo, I made the trip down south. Met up Sweetie and we spent most of the time at home playing with Zoey. On Friday I picked her Cousin up from the bus stop and took them out to see the nightlife. Went to Velvet Underground at Zouk and met up with some other friends. We had some beers, white wine and some shots of what I think tasted like appletinis! After that we headed for some roti canai at SS15. The next day we all went out for lunch at the Curve for Pancakes and in the evening we dropped Sweetie cousin and bf at KLIA.

On Sunday we joined up with the gang and drove ourselves to Sepang Circuit to watch the A1 GP. It's was nice to hear the roar of those racing cars zoom by. The 2.4 V8 engines are pretty loud. Our very own Alex Yoong representing M'sia finished 9th in the Sprint race and 14th in the Feature race. Met up with the gang later at McD's Centerpoint to have something to eat before heading home to rest. I left for PG around 3am and arrived at around 6+am and now I'm just sleepy! I miss my 2 gals very much. ;)

Movie Review

Now this is an interesting movie. It's actually fully animated using the latest technology from a Japan animation studio. Stunning effects! some scenes you can't tell the difference from a real life actor or an animated one. The close ups are pretty cool as you can see freckles aging lines and all clearly! I would say that this movie fully utilized the technology from the Final Fantasy Movie and made further improvements. The storyline is pretty interesting and keeps you wanting to stay till the end. But it's has a pretty hefty dialog sometimes, but it fits well with the storyline.

Andy's Movie-O-Meter : 8/10

November - 3rd Weekend

Sweetie had to make the trip up this weekend because I had training for the past 3 days and a BBQ to attend, Zoey came along too. After setting up Zoey's play pan we headed out for a movie, watched midnight screening of Beowulf.

We went up to Alor Setar to visit her parents and allow Zoey to play with Rufus and Momo. It was interesting to see how she reacted to the other dogs and how they reacted with a new comer. As expected the 2 older dogs were a little jealous of the new pup in roaming around the house. For lunch we had Kenny Rogers, it's been a while since I've had KR, the chicken and muffins are still as good the last time I had them. After a couple of hours we zoomed back to the island and headed straight to the BBQ venue. Introduced my work colleagues to Sweetie and lil' Zoey who remained uninterested and quiet the whole time we were there. Got home around 9:30pm and we all decided to just stay at home to rest and play with the lil' one because she became active again once she stepped foot on familiar grounds.

Sunday morning, sweetie decided to go have brunch at Copthorne Hotel that serves chinese style broth. Price was around 12++ and the food was pretty good. After that we hanged out at Gurney for a couple of hours and finally getting a 5x5 rubiks cube for dad's birthday present. Lol. Later that evening Sweetie had a tummy ache from something that she might have eaten, she decided to stay another night and take medical leave the following day and went back on Tuesday morning at 3am. Salute!

Was a good good weekend.

GRA Round 4

GRA Round 4, it was time to put the gloves on once again. Everyone was eagerly waiting for their turn to set a time on the course. The morning session for the Grass Class was pretty interesting as the course setup was a smooth flowing high speed course. A small accident occured just before lunch time and thank god the driver is OK. Bravo to the marshalls who helped out and to everyone else who provided a helping hand. Organizers introduced a new timing system that uses a infra red beam to activate the timer, so no more 3,2,1, GO starts. Drivers were given 15 seconds to start off once the Green light is on which signals the course is clear.

Pro Grass started a little behind time but everything was running smoothly once it got underway. After practice and 2 timed runs the much expected rain just poured down and took about 1 hour to clear. The course was pretty much slippery everywhere and it was definately fun having to drive the course in the wet. I didn't do very well in the wet as I was caught out by some oil patches on the surface and made donuts instead, lol. YS Khong did what he did best on the slippery surface going sideways FAST!

All in all the event went smoothly despite another incident where an MRS actually jumped the curb and went over the drain. The car was pretty much stuck in across the drain and it took alot of strong drivers to carry big slabs to lay it down as a bridge.

Can't wait for the next one on December 16th 2007.

what the?

didn't know they had these things till i saw them...lol.

Birthday Shoutout - Rosie Sis

Laaazzy weekend in KL

One of the most lazy weekends I had in KL. Didn't do much, did quite a lot of resting and sleeping when possible. Lil' Zoey keeps us awake by doing all sorts of notti notti things, like finding the camera on the stool and taking it to a nice spot and start chewing on it. LoL. She's darn cute.

Arrived on Friday with Suby, decided to keep her in KL since GRA is this coming weekend. True enough it was a nightmare driving Suby now with the block leak getting worst. I had to stop once near Ulu Bernam to give her a drink of fresh water. I got going after about 15 mins and arrived in KL around 5:15pm. I went straight to pick Zoey up from Sweetie's house and took her to the nearby vet. Seems that the doctor and his helpers remember Zoey from her recent visit a couple of weeks back. It was time for her 2nd Jab as a puppy, she was kinda scared at first and got used to the helpers playing with her after a while. Then the doctor gave her the shot, was done in a blink. Zoey was a good gal staying still for the shot and didn't make any noise till after 30 seconds then she started to whine and cry a little from the pain. Aaawww, I held her close and gave her kisses, she calmed down after 10-15 seconds. We paid the doctor and made our journey home without any issues. Back home she was super active and running all over the place. Sweetie came home later and brought Burger King for dinner, woohoo!.

Saturday was kinda busy, I woke up around 7:15am and fed Zoey breakfast. Sweetie was expecting the Piano tuner and a Telekom Engineer around 11-12pm. Everything was done around 2pm, Sweetie had to attend her company dinner tonight so we decided to go to Subang Parade to grab some last minute stuff. We also stopped by Cold Storage to grab some groceries to stock up. Left for the dinner around 5:30pm and on the way I stopped at the train station to get my Nice bus ticket for Sunday evening. Service there is pretty good and the bus was comfy too, ticket cost me RM58 which includes food and drinks. We finally arrived at the hotel and just in time too everyone was just arriving, the hotel waitress served beer, wine and other refreshments outside the arrival hall. The dinner wasn't too bad, first time I've seen the waiter serve the dish individually. They also had shows by a professional team called Moonwalker Group, was pretty good, but the best part of the dinner is the shows that were preformed by the employees. They were really funny and entertaining. When I got home I just dropped and slept after taking a hot shower.

I woke up around the same time on Sunday and decided to prepare breakfast for Sweetie. She was knocked out from all the alcohol she consumed from the dinner. So I started by toasting bread and you know how toasters have an auto timer which pops the bread after a while, for some reason the toaster didn't do that and my 1st batch of toast was burnt to charcoal black bread! So for the 2nd batch I reminded myself to do it manually, while I was waiting for that I took out the half-boiled egg thingamagic and prepared 2 eggs for sweetie. Toast and half-boiled eggs for breakfast, that's what I usually have almost every morning. Anyways it was kinda hard to wake her up so I sent Zoey in for her lick attacks and she did a good job waking her mummy up. muhahaha. We went out for lunch with Ivan for Prawn Mee noodles somewhere on the outskirts of town. Later on we dropped by Ikano's pet store to get more supplies for Zoey before heading home to play with her. Sweetie and I just lazed for a while before she had to drive me to the bus station.

It was a lovely weekend spent with Sweetie and Lil' Zoey. Can't wait for the next weekend to come.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

BOOOOOOOOOO!

Weekend Up North

Last weekend was nice. I got to see both my gals as they took a drive up to PG on Friday evening. I was waiting to see what mum thought of Zoey, cause she spent a few nights downstairs. Mum dosen't like the idea of having pets, especially ones in the house. But I think Zoey was cute enough that she didn't mind much. LoL. Good thing Zoey dosen't shed alot. Being a very curious dog, she wandered around sniffing out the new location. She got used to being around my family after a couple of mins and she also started to learn to climb the stairs only after a couple of mins. She did pee in the wrong place twice. But she was a good gal for most of the weekend.

We headed up to Alor Star to visit Sweetie's parents and 2 other dogs, Momo and Rufus. We were wondering how they would react to lil' Zoey in the house. Suprisingly both of them liked her! It was definately a big suprise to sweetie, we were happy they were able to get along. Then it was time for Zoey to have a bath! LoL she was so cute, looked like a wet rat! Too bad didn't take any photos, must remember to do that the next time.

The rest of the weekend we spent at home playing with lil' Zoey. It was nice to have Sweetie around to give hugs and kisses.

2hours 35mins...

...that's how long it took me to travel from PG - KL and KL - PG from toll to toll 3 times in a row. At first I didn't really bother but I was wondering why it only took that short time to travel using my mum's Honda Accord.

The speedometer was reading 140-160km/h, almost all the cars on the road were giving way. But everythinng felt as if it was slow motion. It was also raining most of the time, so it made other traffic slower. I might have picked up a speeding ticket or two or more I think, maybe....errr.

Here's an incident, it was just in the tunnel near Sg Perak. I was heading back to PG and if you're framiliar with the roads there after the tunnel it's a high speed winding road to the bottom. I was bored and getting sleepy, then this BMW X3 zoomed by, I floored the pedal and gave chase. Yea it's kinda pointless chasing the X3 in damp conditions on the twisty roads, a quick glance at the speedo and it showed 155km/h. Up ahead there was a right hander followed with a left, in rally pace notes I'd say R4 (long) -> L4 (long).

Usually I'd take that corner without any problems so I lined up on the left side of the road getting ready to take the racing line but on that day the road was all of a sudden WET and it was wet the moment I was applying pressure on the brakes while I was turning the steering wheel. The next 0.5 seconds the car started to oversteer with the tail stepping out to the left, I was now facing the guard rails that were on my right. 1.0 seconds I braked enough to clear the corner and I applied a little countersteer to the left and lifted my foot off the brakes and the car straightened and I pushed on. I then decided not to chase the X3 anymore because it was long gone. So this is my first high speed oversteer incident haha. I'm glad everything was ok and there wasn't additional drama.

Believe me, words can't describe the adrenaline and feeling after what happened. So kids be careful on the road, always drive within the limits of your ability and your car's ability. Over driving is the most common mistake all drivers make.

Phew.

Meet Zoey

Zoey is our new baby gal. Got her last Friday in KL, found her on puppy.com.my and was up for sale, I decided to give the owner a call and we made an appointment. Went down to the owner's house to pick her up with Sweetie. She had alot of fun with the other dogs and was happy to play with Zoey. We discussed with the owner on the price and negotiated before getting her. Sweetie is happy with Zoey and I'm am happy that I got her too, she's sooo cute. Now I got 2 cute gals. Muaks.

Naming her too us 1 1/2 days to figure out. First it was Roxy then Toot-Toot (this was sweetie's suggestion) and finally she came up with Zoey. Cool name for a cute and active pup, definitely fits her personality. Well I hope all goes well for Zoey and Sweetie as she will be the care taker most of the time.

F1 News : Kimi is the 2007 Champ!

Kimi Raikkonen Formula 1 - 2007 Champion

Podium drivers

The Prancing Horse! Champions once again!

Lewis after the race. Better luck next time.

Although I missed the start of the race I managed to catch the end and to see who gets crowned at world champion in Brazil. Watching the pace of Kimi in the final few laps was excellent, his calm cool driving reminds me of Michael. It's a shame to see Lewis finish lower, it would have been a fairy tale finish for a rookie to be world champion. But finishing 2nd with the big boys is just as good, there's always next year.

..Congratulations Kimi and Ferrari..

Birthday Wishes - Sifu Ivan!

Happy Birthday Sifu Ivan!

Thanks for the Dinner at Carl's Jr.

*i still owe you dinner*

Raya in Penang with Sweet Pie

Picked up sweetie from the airport and we headed home to just hang out. There isn't anything interesting to do so we watched Top Gear's 10th Season Episode 1 which was quite interesting and kept us entertained for the night. Called it a night quite early because we had to get up early the next morning for a photoshoot with Suby. Jack and his gal Ee Kheng brought out their professional digital SLR's and started snapping away. Sweetie took out her cam to start shooting too and got some pretty interesting shots. We went to the Teluk Bahang Dam to shoot the photos and had an interesting time enjoying the scenic view and fresh air. Later on we moved to the beach to get more shots and around 10am we headed home.

Sweetie didn't finish walking around Queensbay Mall so we headed there for the afternoon and spent quite alot of time in the Padini Concept Store cause there was a sale at low prices. Got myself 2 shirts which cost somewhere around RM100, sweetie decided to use her mental power to guess if she'd be able to fit into 2 pants she bought. Unfortunately the pants were a little too big for her, she gave them to her lil' sis instead. How did this happen? there weren't enough dressing rooms and the queue was long!. Oh well, next time it's a must to try on what you're buying no matter what. After shopping around more we had late lunch at Julia's place, she cooked beef noodles which was excellent! Then we headed to Alor Star to visit sweetie's parents and dogs, Momo and Rufus are so cute. We had dinner at a local shop which served western food and I had 2 dishes for some reason. hahaha. Played with the dogs and dozed off to sleep after that. Was directed to the mall where we had lunch and walked around window shopping. Headed back to the Island around 5-ish and went for dinner at Julia's again, once again terrific food! Sweetie had a good time munching on the chow. hehehe. We watched Superman Returns on HBO.

It's a public holiday on Monday so sweetie was still around. We decided to head to Gurney Plaza to walk around and window shop a little. Spent some time in MPH and Toys R Us and just having a lazy walk. After a couple of hours there we headed home to pick up mum and went for dinner at the Tree Shade. After that Sweetie had to catch a flight back to KayEL.

It was a terrific weekend.

To Dog or not to Dog

I've always wanted a dog as a pet. Unfortunately my mum dosen't allow any of us boys in the house to keep a dog because no one is responsible enough to keep one :(


Saw this cute dog on Lowyat.net forum, it's a Silky Terrier. Was making arrangements to get the cute dog and get sweetie to help me keep the dog at her place. But alas, I was too slow and the dog was sold to someone else :(


Back to hunting again.


isn't she cute?

Movie Review

This movie kept me laughing all the way from start to end. Another quality movie from Adam Sandler, Kevin James character made it more enjoyable and as usual Rob Schnider made a cameo appearance. Jessica Beil is HOT HOT HOT! watch and see why. It's a good movie and you should definately watch it.

Andy's Movie-O-Meter : 8/10

lazy weekend in KayEL

I got a surprise on Thursday evening when Sweetie decided to drive up and have a longer weekend with me. I was scheduled to go down to KL to see her, hehe....you're so sweet gal. So I had to work on Friday and we went for lunch together with the usual suspects I go lunch with, Gladys, Stanley and Rosie.

After work which was around 3pm everyone gathered at my house and we got moving heading to KL around 4+. Jack was also going back so Rosie jumped into his car for a more comfy ride. The drive was pretty smooth with quite alot of traffic, at least some of parts of the highway is done up so the drive was pretty good. Jack took the opportunity to shoot some photos while he was driving! haha. So we arrived in KL around dinner time where we met up with Tigela and had dinner at Ms Reed. Not a bad place to have dinner, it's quite cozy and the price is pretty standard too. I had the Lasagna, sweetie had the mushroom spaghetti, Rosie had some sorta spaghetti too and Tigela had some rice curry chicken dish. For desert we had a Choc ice cream thing which i forgot what it's called. Decided to call it a night and cuddle.

The following afternoon sweetie took to have KL laksa. Yum!. The laksa wasn't too bad the soup was good but the noodles wasn't soft enough. We also ordered Curry Kapitan with a couple of Mantao's. Caught a movie at Cineleisure before we headed to Ikano to have a walk around and shopped around for Crocs slippers but didn't get any cause it is kinda expensive. Instead we bought a bottle of tequila and a bottle of Cockburn's. For dinner we joined the gang at Asia Cafe and then headed home for a few shots of tequila before we dozed off.

On Sunday we decided to join Ros and Tigela for lunch and headed to Bangsar and ate at Madam Kwan's. Food was pretty good, I had the Nasi Lemak special and i got to admit that it's good. But I liked my drink, Lemon, Lime mix! Wheee! Walked around the new Bangsar Village mall before heading home to pack. Went over to see Ivan for a while before heading to the Air Port. I booked a flight with Air Asia and it was delayed, but it was ok, i get to see sweetie a little longer.

A lazy but good weekend indeed.

Hiking Session

Here we were at Youth Park getting ready for the hike up to the top which usually takes around 20 mins. As usual we started late and it was a pretty good hike with 3-4 stops for Gladys to take a breather. It's funny, she's the one who organized this hike....we were kinda shocked...because...knowing her the only form of exercise is shopping non-stop. LoL. Surprisingly the path was cooling, usually it's more humid and hot. The view was nice, but you could see the haze around. It wasn't very crowded either, maybe because it's Hump day.

Overall the whole trip was good, took us around 1 hour plus to complete the hike. Then we decided to head nearby to drink some coconut juice.

*thanks to Jack for the photos

Corrine Bailey Rae - Call Me When You Get This

How does it feel being in these arms?
what's it really like to be loved?

I've been alone now, how long?

Have you ever loved the way that I have?

and i have often wondered who,

who could love you the way i do?

now I just want you to know, how I'm touched deep in

my soul just being with you,

and I need you more each day.

baby if you're still awake,

call me when you get this.

I've got all this poetry now I didnt know then,

I kept inside. Guess I had never seen anything beautiful

till I first saw you asleep at night.

And I have often wondered who,

who could love you the way i do?

now I just want you to know, how I'm touched deep in

my soul just being with you,

and I need you more each day.

baby if you're still awake,

call me when you get this.

I just wanted to know what its like,
what it's really like to be loved?

These little volcanoes came as a surprise to me.

I never thought I could be this way,

and I have been cautious and I've tried to keep to myself,

but who could love you the way I do?

now I just want you to know,

how I'm touched deep in

my soul just being with you,

and I need you more each day.

baby if you're still awake,

call me when you get this.

A nice song from Corrine. Dedicated to my Sweetie.

A weekend in Penang...with Sweetie!

Wheeeee! Sweetie drove up to Penang just to see me. Had a more relaxed weekend, well there isn't much to do in PG if compared to KL anyways. But we managed to keep ourselves entertained and in good company. She left work around 4pm and arrived around 8pm on Friday and she helped tapau Burger King! After dinner we headed up to the Touge route and I gave her a tour of the stages. hehe. I drove her lil' Kelly and it brings back memories driving my Kelisa. Easy to drive flat out without worrying about boost and other things. I noticed that there are alot of road works in the middle but I guess it's for the best, there have been land slides there before. There was a group of people who stopped at the side of the road somewhere on the way downhill, wonder what the heck they were doing there. We decided to call it a night after the drive which ended around 2am by the time we got back home.

On Saturday, we decided to head to Alor Setar to see her dogs. Had Koay Teow Th'ng before heading north and upon arrival and meeting her parents, we went for lunch! A nice food store which cooks Chinese dishes, delicious servings, I'd definitely go back there to eat again. I forgot to take photos :( but I will when I'm there again. We made a stop at a shop that sells crystals and gems, pretty nice place, cheap too. The rest of the day was spent playing with her dogs, Momo and Rufus. 2 cute poodles, Rufus was the playful one compared to Momo who was really ladylike and for some reason she kept sticking to me. LoL. Darn this makes me want to have a dog! Oh well...in due time...in dueee time. Was thinking of getting a Jack Russel Terrier or a Border Collie, but big dogs aren't goin to be easy to keep indoors. Later on we decided to head back to PG and went out with Julia for Coffee Bean and Cakes! Yum! I haven't been to Gurney Plaza for a while and well it's changed a little. It's still a hang out spot for everyone of all ages. Surprisingly I didn't bump into any Dellians that I know. Took a walk around Gurney Drive, seems that there are alot of people who just hang out there and do nothing but enjoy the sea breeze. But too bad it was the low tide and all we could see was mud and rubbish, it's sad to see the sea that contaminated :( Later on we made our way home and watched a DVD before dozing off.

It was Sunday when I woke up and it was F1 weekend in Japan so I decided to wake sweetie up and asked her to get ready for lunch. Watched F1 for a while before heading out to have Air Itam Laksa! for lunch. While we were eating lunch it rained heavily and we were kinda stuck at the store for a while. Paid a visit to sweetie's lil' sista' in Tg. Bungah before we made plans to go walk around Queensbay and have dinner. We checked out some slippers from Crocs, it's expensive! but extremely comfy. Had dinner at Paddington's Pancakes and had their special, seems they charge RM55++ for 2 people and it's eat all you can on their menu. Only catch is that you can't order the same thing twice. In total we had 4 pancake dishes and 1 dessert pancake. I know I was so full I had trouble walking back to the car. LoL.

Sweetie packed up and left around 10pm. I'm missing U so much now. TQ for the wonderful weekend. I'll be seeing' ya soon gal. Till then, I'll keep replying all the memories from the weekend, over and over again. :D

Miss You Sweetie! --- #500 blog post!

I miss you alot,
I have you on my mind most of the time.
But not to worry,
We'll see each other soon enough Sweetie.
Muaks!

**lovely heart reminds me of you**

This is also my 500th post on the blog! Woohooo!

Photo Collage : BBQ in KL

BBQ Weekend in KL!

It was Wednesday and I was just at home on the couch going online and looking at stuff on the forums. "Another BBQ?" I asked Ian on MSN chat. "Yup" a reply appeared in the chat box. "Cool" I replied back and we continued to chat about the BBQ and stuff about cars. On the other hand I was planning on what time I should leave Penang and head to KL. Messaged Rosalind and confirmed with her that I'm goin down, she wanted to tag along. Yea both of us have a purpose to make trips down to KL this time around. We miss the gang and most important of all we miss our partners :)

It was around 4:35pm when we started our journey from the Juru Toll. The traffic wasn't that bad, smooth flow of traffic and since the elections are near and also the Raya celebrations closing in the cops usually work harder to enforce the law. I was kinda careful when I approached towns and highway exits. These buggers would hide on the middle pillar and start shooting with a speed camera. Unfortunately for me I didn't manage to anticipate the bugger hiding at the Taiping exit area and I was goin a little faster than the limilt, saw the guy bending down for the print button I suppose. We made 1 stop at Tapah for about 5 mins and continued on. When we arrived it was around 7:30pm and headed straight for dinner at Italiannes at The Curve. Food was good but the service could have improved, this is the 2nd time I've been there and the service is just not up to par. I'd suggest they improve customer service and put on a smile and hire people who speak proper english. So after dinner we headed to Baskin Robbins to have some ice cream. Sweetie loves the Rum Raisin and ordered 2 scoops and got 1 free scoop with an offer from her credit card, I took the green tea ice cream on a cone. I was sooo full I had trouble walking! haha. I think I actually gained 2-3kg from this trip, since we were nearly on an eating spree. At the end of the day, we just called it a night and headed home for sleep.

Saturday started out like any other Saturday for me. A trip to the workshop, but this time I had Edwin's car to sort out some problems. First off is the alignment and Second was the Disc brakes. Even though the car didn't have ABS, every time you braked on this car it would have the ABS feeling. LoL. I wonder how he actually drives the car. Anyways we needed to change to new discs cause the old ones were skimmed to the max and if they did anymore skimming it might just crack under breaking. While the boys at the shop were working on the car, we skipped out to look for parts. Suby needs some extra parts before she can have a transplant, thanks to sweetie's source of info we managed to get the flywheel and injectors, of course I had Ivan there to help me out then we had lunch at MJ's before heading back to the shop. Once everything was completed sweetie and I headed back to have a short nap before the BBQ started.

When we arrived the gang was just setting up the 2nd BBQ pit and Ian managed to get a small fire started on the 1st pit. Everyone helped out, the girls were at their usual post, in the kitchen and the guys were outside playing with fire. Muahahah!. There was alot of food once again, lol. Everyone had fun cooking eating and playing with the dogs, Rusty-Spike, Joy, Fatty & Yummie Bak Kut Teh. Surprisingly the hard liquor hasn't been touched for 2 bbqs now. LoL. Most of us just settled for the beer and Tesco Cola. I've got to admit, all the food was from Tesco and the lamb and chicken was good, whatever they used to season the lamb it was tasty! After 4 hours of cooking, eating and joking around we headed inside the house for more entertainment. Most of them started playing Mahjong and the rest of us were hooked to the PS2 playing GT4 with Ian's steering wheel rig. Everyone was playing till around 3am before we left and headed home for bed.

Then came the sun on a Sunday morning. I woke up early cause sweetie asked a maid to come by and clean the house. Apparently only I heard the door bell ring and let her in the house. I went back to bed and sweetie got up later to instruct the maid and paid the fees on her way out. We continued sleeping till around 2pm before we decided to get dressed and head out for lunch. So we decided to head to 1-utama and eat some Japanese food at Genki Sushi. Now this restaurant is suppose to rival Sushi King, but this one for so many reasons is just rubbish. I don't know how they manage to keep running. The food was bad and the service...horrible. I'm definitely not going back there again. Even the worst maintained Sushi King I've ever been in was much better than this. So to the manager of Genki Sushi 1-Utama who is reading this, you'd better do something about your service and food, seriously. After lunch we did a little shopping around, I went to F.O.S to check out some shirts. Rosalind had to run some errands for Nigel, so we headed to Eneos to get the stuff he needed.

Later on we met up with the gang and everyone wanted to get dinner. Hopped into a Honda Odyssey and we ended up once again in 1-utama's Carl's Jr. Although kinda expensive the burgers were huge. 1 meal was enough to stuff all the guys ahaha. I'm not much of a big eater but when I can eat, I'll eat. I had the Western Bacon burger and Sweetie had the Portobello Mushroom which was good too. Sadly we had to call it an end to a great weekend. Rosie and I left around 10pm and by the time we got back to PG it was around 1:30am.

Miss u lots, sweetie. I loved the music lesson!

Picture Collage : Cameron Highlands

A new heart for Suby

Suby's been doing pretty well for now. After getting me from place to place and preforming pretty well in GRA, she needs a new heart. Discussions on budget have been on going for a long time and finally it has ended. The decision? It was inevitable and now it's confirmed.

If you're interested in sponsoring me please feel free to email me or drop me a comment here.

Food Review : Ah Sang Bak Kut Teh

Now I'm not a big big fan of Bak Kut Teh. But after eating at Ah Sang's, I've learnt how to enjoy it more. Although I don't really fancy the things we call spare parts which consists of intestines, livers and all the other stuff that is just plain weird to me. I try to stay away from that if possible.

Where is this place located? It's somewhere on the LDP, just before a flyover which looks like the Penang birdge.

So why is this good? Well it's tasty! I love the soup and the rice and everything that comes with it. If you're planning to go, ensure you go early they open around 9am. I've been there around 10:30am before and couldn't find a place to sit. There isn't much to say about the environment, the shop is actually an old house that is converted to a shop lot. Price is reasonable and the service is just good enough.

I'd recommend it if you do eat pork. Yum.

R.I.P Colin Mcrae

Sunday 16th September 2007
HELICOPTER CRASH – JERVISWOOD, LANARK
Regarding yesterday’s helicopter crash at Jerviswood, Lanark, it has now been confirmed that there were four people, two adults and two young children on board.

Although a post mortem has still to take place, the four involved are believed to be:
Mr Colin McRae (39) of Jerviswood House and his son Johnny Gavin McRae, aged 5.
Ben Porcelli (6), of Cleghorn Road, Lanark, who had been over playing with Johnny, and family friend Graeme Duncan (37), of L’Ile Degaillot, Faycelles, France.

Chief Superintendent Tim Love, Divisional Commander, South Lanarkshire Division, said today:
“We believe that the group were just returning from a visit to the nearby village of Quarter around 1605 hours yesterday, when it appears that the helicopter got into difficulty and crashed within the grounds of Mr McRae’s family home.

“Our officers are working closely with the Air Accident Investigation Team who are presently at the scene.

“Family Liaison Officers have been appointed and are with the families to help them through this distressing and difficult time.”

F1 News : Ferrari 1-2 at Belgium!

WAY TO GO FERRARI!

Road Trip : Cameron Highlands

Started the whole trip on Friday 14th September 2007 as Rosalind and I strapped ourselves into the Accord and I just gave it a good workout. We left around 4pm from Hell's Gates and managed to get to the Juru Autocity Toll in 25mins plus-minus with slightly slow traffic at the bridge. Once we hit the highway I managed to hit around 140-150 and kept it constant for the most of the journey. Departure time around 4:44pm. The journey was pleasant and we managed to keep talking about some topics and converse about stuff, though I remembered talking about music and movies, actors and actresses the most.

Arrived at the Damansara toll around 7:35pm and I was quite surprised with the traffic flow on the highway, I was expecting to be held up at somewhere because of all the road works that is going on now. It seems that the government has decided to resurface the roads now and is rushing to complete it before the Raya Celebrations. By doing that they are forced to close a 3 lane road to 2 and at some points 2 lane roads are closed and the emergency lane is used as a 1 lane detour, now that makes traffic come to a standstill since alot of drivers don't know how to give way or are to "kiasu" *afraid to lose* and that just makes everything a little...slow. Can't help it if a slow moving Truck or Bus is in the way. But I guess it's all good, in the near future the roads would be less bumpy and all.

So we met up at Ian's house and had some pre-dinner celebration for Jiannin's Bday. I've got to admit that Aunt. Wendy sure knows how to set up a good meal. The whole gang was at the house, even Ivan and his family. He gave me a wave and we had a short conversation.

"So you've moved down to KL already right?" and smiles.

"You'd like that won't you?" and we laugh.

"I've adopted him on your behalf" Aunt Wendy said while laughing.

We all continued to have dinner and Sweetie was there too. Funny part of the day is when I had to guide her from getting lost to Ian's house. LoL. Sowe Sweetie. I just had to say it. But it's good that I could guide her a little, somehow I just remember roads around the PJ area now, but it's limited to the surroundings. LoL. Sweetie and I left to head to the Parkson at 1U to pick up some presents for the birthday ppl. Everyone agreed to get same kind of present for all of them, it's a remote control radio car and since Admiral got one for his bday we thought it would be fun getting the same type of car and model for the rest. But we missed out something, the frequency of the remotes!. It seems that this company made each model to a specific frequency range. So since we got 2 out of 3 of the exact same model, well 1 controller ended up moving 3 remote cars! LoL. I'm not sure if they can get it changed, but we'll try. If not then I'm sorry guys, didn't seem to think about the frequency thingy before buying it.

The trip to Cameron started a little late. Made a move around 1pm and made it to the top around 3:45pm. Thoughest part is the hill climb with the Accord which was overloaded with the ice box! Lucky nothing moved around too much. Kenneth booked this bungalow at Kg. Raja, it's a little further down and isn't really at the top of the Cameron hill. Still it was damn cold! So cold that taking a shower was torcher! LoL. Lucky the house had a heater system. Surprisingly this place is located in a residential area and in the middle of some farms. Overall the place was big enough to have a badminton court where we parked our cars. Upon arrival the guys unloaded the car, ice box & bbq set, then when Admiral took out his Remote Subaru Car the guys continued to make a mini autocross out of things we could find around, while the gals prepared the food, chopping onions, washing vegetables and all that. Much appreciated gals, job well done.

BBQ started around 8pm and Tigel the chef was on duty to cook whatever was available. The Lamb that was supplied from Tesco was excellent. Jennice managed the steamboat and kept it nice and warm and steaming fish balls and vegetables. It was darn cold as it started to rain and the breeze was freezing all of us. The heat from the BBQ pit was nice and warm, most of us stood next to it to get some heat. I tried to keep Sweetie warm by hugging her but it was way too cold so we headed inside to get some warmth. Surprisingly the rooms weren't cold. The temperature was just nice inside the house.

After Ian and Jiannin arrived we set up the birthday cakes and birthday presents for everyone and sang a song, took photos and started round 2 of the BBQ. More FOOD!. But I was already stuffed with cake. Was a huge slice and it was kinda nice, from Secret Recipe. While waiting for everyone to finish eating and all I just couldn't move anymore after having 1 or 2 more slices of Tesco lamb and after having 1 beer it made things worst, made more lethargic and sleepy. Decided to crawl into bed and cuddle. Next thing I know it was already morning and I think I woke up around 8 or 9am and headed for the toilet. Came back to sleep and finally everyone started waking up around 11am-12pm. Everyone took turns using the shower and some of us started the day eating junk food for brunch! LoL. Ian asked "Is there anymore food left?" and we checked the fridge, "Yup" some of us answered. "Let's BBQ sammor" Ian said with his look of enthusiasm. He managed to get the the charcoal started and everyone else helped him start it. The funny part is that there were 2 boxes of fire starters and by the time we were done, it was all gone. LoL. Seems they managed to start the fire with limited charcoal on hand and used the fire starters when the fire was dying down. Plus the fact that Ian was BBQing everything from Potato Chips to Small mini Mooncakes!. lol.

After cleaning up, it was already around 4-5pm. We headed out and went further up the hill to get stuff. Sweetie and I bought Strawberries, she got herself a couple of Cactuses and I bought lots of roses for mum and Julia.

Then it was time to part and go our seperate ways, I really enjoyed this weeknd and Cameron is quite nice to visit to get away from it all. I would definately go up again soon. Thanks to everyone for making the trip a little more special! Huggs and Kisses to my Sweetie, miss ya!.

Birthday Shoutout to :

JianNin aka Suzie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!