Catch-up Session with my old Bestie....

I went back to my hometown this weekend for some prayers.
Right after prayers, I called up my bestie whom I have known since my second job.
I got to know her (yes, she is that "L" word) like more than a decade ago and ever since we came out to each other at work, we became close friends....

We used to do stuff like chatting by the beach/water dam, drove around the city at night, hang out at the night market and etc...
Even tho she is not really a "nature person" and I'm not really a "city person", we manage to compromise and hang out with each other pretty well.....
We have been around for each other thru our break-ups, new found love, helping each other to impress our new targets and such...
So, I missed her a lot ever since I moved down to KL.....

I have been wanting to watch "Deadpool" since Chinese New Year but I could not really firmed up any plans till now.
Like always, I called her up...

Me: Hey you....are you free?
Bestie : Yes....wanna do lunch?
Me: Not good, need to have lunch with my parents.... u want dinner or after dinner?
Bestie : fine with either... we can go after dinner if you need to have dinner with parents....
Me : Then after dinner would be better. Btw, have you watched Deadpool?
Bestie : No....I haven't. Heard that it's kinda funny and badass....
Me : *checking GSC and TGV app.....* Hey.... let's go catch a movie around 4pm and then we have dinner together....
Bestie : Sure...I'll go get ready
Me : Ok....pick u up at 3 then.... see u

Yupp, that's our usual que....on the spot plan and go....minimal planning and spontaneous excitement... haha.
Guess that is why at times we ended up doing nothing but sitting by the road side, admiring the traffic while she light a ciggy...
It's never bothered us on we are doing, it's more of spending some time together....
For instance, I know she's not a big fan of horror movie (unlike me) but she would just go for it coz I liked it....
I'm not a big fan of seafood, watches, pendant and stuff but I would spend the whole evening, hopping from 1 shop to the other with her.... I missed those times.....

Deadpool was funny as hell....
Ryan Reynold really pulled this character thru very well....cheeky, funny and...yes....badass
It's not like the typical super hero movies where, villians cause chaos, superhero fight the bad guys and save the day...
As for Deadpool.... he's a "superhero" in his own funny way.... haha
We enjoyed the dirty jokes, sarcasm and all his cheeky stunt throught out the whole movie.....

After movie, we had sandwich and pizza for dinner and we had a long chat about work and personal life....

Classical view of the walk way in Chew Jetty

Awesome view of the fishing boat @ Chew Jetty

PS: Again, both awesome photos are not my credit to claim as I took them from Google search... It was too dark to get a nice photo when we were there....

After dinner, we drove to Weld Quay to check out Chew Jetty.
This is my second time here (my first time was during CNY, had intention to blog abt it but it is still saved as a draft copy. Crap....I really need to dicipline myself to finish off my Draft copy) and both of us enjoyed the view as we walked further into the...erm... "village/resident-ish" perhaps....can't think of a word for it but basically it's a straight path surrounded by houses built on top of the sea.

View-wise : checked.... nice and it brings back memories of how my grandma's home used to look like....those olden design and structure...

Smell-wise : ugh..... those sea and fishy smell may not be the best smell ever.... meh

Entrace to Lee Jetty.....

Wooden walk-way out in the sea @ Lee Jetty

"Floating" temple view from Lee Jetty

Childhood Ice Lollies

PS: None of the photos above....again, sadly not my own masterpiece. It is taken from Google search... ya ya ya, I know... I'll snap my own photo next time..... :P

After Chew Jetty, we walked further along Weld Quay to Lee Jetty and we bought 2 of our childhood ice lollies.
It is nothing but frozen flavoured syrup in a plastic tube. Those were the days when simple things like this would gave us so much joy. Unlike the kids now, pampered with multiple choices of ice cream, frozen yogurt, milkshakes with all sorts of toppings but yet they are complaining about lack of choices.... be grateful, you Gen-Z spoilt brats !!

AT Lee Jetty, one of the highlights that I like is the wooden walk-way that is setup out into the sea.
It's pretty windy and chilly as you stand on the plank and enjoyed the nicely light-up view of the "floating temple".
Both of us stood there for some time, talking about the memories we shared in our previous company.
Last night was mainly a "walk down memory lane" kinda get together where we talked about things that happened 13 or 14 years ago such as funny gossips about our bosses, office politics and "interesting" customers that we met along the way.

It was indeed a good night catching up those good old day again....
I'm gonna miss this when I'm back in KL, when I'm back to do my crappy work for my useless boss on Monday....

Well, one of my 2016 resolution is to shop whining about my work and snap out of it.....so I'm going to make sure I do that...
Good night people and good night 5-March-2016.... 

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My New Toy....tee heee....

I have always wanted to get a tablet, so much that each time I entered Machines (Apple authorized dealer) or Samsung store, I would always spent at least 5 to 10 minutes admiring their new tablet. It is something nice to have but it's not something that I really need.

Finally on 27 Feb 2016, I bought myself a tablet that I have been eyeing on for months. Why? This is why.....

I was able to resist the urge to get a table till the moment my partner got his new iphone. That is when I started to have this "itch" inside me which pushes me around to get a new tablet. I know at some point I need to get a new phone because my current phone (a 3 years old Samsung Note 3) has been pretty laggy and problematic. I thought instead of getting a decent phone which would cost me about RM2.6K to RM3K, having a tablet to supplement my current phone would be a sensible option.

So wah lah.... that is how I get myself a new toy to play with. After playing it for a while, I came to a few conclusions

Pros:
-   It's bigger and more value for money as compare to phone - closest gadget that can operate as a phone-wannabe
-   Its best media for reading news, e-books/magazines and etc
-   Screen is big enough to display more content in a single view - less scrolling up-down/left-right

Cons:
-   Size does matter - difficult to bring around

Oh well, regardless of the size, I'm still happy with my new toy. It has been a while since I get something expensive for myself... woo hoo....

Will try to update here more frequent, now that I can do so on my bed instead of sitting in front of my PC or trying to type long text using my phone. Till next time......

My US trip : Day 4...

 

 

Right after breakfast, We went hiking again at Bear Mountain Park again. 2 days in a row... woo hoo...

 

This time, with a more appropriate "gear", personally I enjoyed the trip much better than the day before. We managed to hiking faster and I managed to take more picture this time. Similarly, we managed to climb up to the top for the breathe-taking view before we hiked back down.

 

 

 

On our way down, we were greeted by a few families who went for their regular Sunday hiking. Some of them brought their dog along with them for the hike. Looking at how much fun they have with their 4-legged friend, it made me miss Tezel even more. My adorable little boy.... I wish I could bring him out to more places instead of that few dog friendly park. Sigh.... bummer right?

 

We head back home for brunch and I had some fun time with AK and his family. It was a simple and relaxing Sunday for all of us as we slowly prepare for the Christmas celebration which is 4 days away. 

My US trip : Day 3......

After a good day sleeping yesterday, I'm still feeling a bit fuzzy and "floating". Perhaps my body is still adjusting to the 13 hours total shift of daily routine.

 

I got up around 7 plus in the morning, had my first homemade waffle, made freshly in front of my very own eyes. The hot yet crispy waffle, coupled with maple syrup and a hot cup of black coffee, that is a superb breakfast to have on a cool 8 degree Celsius morning. Mmmhhhmmm......  

 

     

 

Right after breakfast, TJ suggested to go for a quick hiking in the woods at Bear Mountain. The sky was clear and the weather was chill and windy. So, instead of visiting the city, we decided to explore some nature scene instead. We drove about 30 to 45 mins to Bear Mountain, all excited and ready for nature walk. Some of the picture that I took while we ventured into the woods....

 

Thick brown layer of leaves on the ground

 

 

Clear blue skies with cool wind (8 degree Celsius)

 

 

The view from the top, overseeing a big lake (or river....I forgot.. :P)

  

After a good lunch back home, we decided to drive down to Manhattan city as AK was craving for his favorite burger from Shake Shack. I have to admit, the burger patties at Shake Shack are pretty tasty and good.

 

 Shake Shack @ Manhattan

 

 Menu @ Shake Shack. They even have food for pets...

 

 ShackStack (AK's) and SmokeShack (mine)



 

After we had our burgers, we stopped by Central Park for a quick walk before we go back and call it a night....

Central Park

 

People in their winter clothing @ Central Park





 Museum of Natural History (night view) - main entrance facing Central Park



My US trip : Day 2....

 

After a long 19 hours flight from Guangzhou to New York, both of us were literally worn out. I was literally spending my time watching movie, sleep and eat. We reached New York around 5 am on 18-Dec (local time) and TJ came and fetched us.

 

Once we reached home, TJ made us some breakfast while we unload those food stuff that I brought from Malaysia. This is when I realized that we brought over 2 luggage full of foodie.... cool eh. We had a good long chat over our incident at Guangzhou and the flight during breakfast and this leads us to afternoon.

 

Right after I took my bath, I was feeling sooooo tired and I slept thru the whole afternoon. I was woken up by CJ when she came back from school. We chatted a fair but, settled down with dinner and I continue to sleep thru the night.....

 

PS: I know, this post seems like a lazy post with very minimal elaboration. This is because I had a very long day today - went hiking in the morning and did some X'mas shopping. Well, I would definitely compensate back in my next post on the places I visited and more photo sharing will be on its way........ stay tune.....

My US trip: Day 1.....

I remembered I couldn't sleep the night before the flight. It was close to 1 or 2 am and I was still pretty much awake. I guess part of it was because I'm officially off work for the year 2015 and best of all, I'm off to New York for Christmas...yay

I woke up around 8 something on 17-Dec, doing my last minute packing to ensure all my daily facial stuff are packed. I did a final check on all the luggage, making sure that I have packed everything that I need and I don't missed out those important documents like my passport, Visa and etc.

We called our regular cab guy to come at 10.30 am and off we go with 4 big luggage (filled with food from Malaysia), 2 hand carry luggage and 2 laptop. I bought 2 luggage lock at the airport before we dropped our luggage off at the counter. We did have some minor hiccups here and there with the medical equipment that AK needs to bring over but overall, we are good.

After we dropped our luggage off the counter, we are only left with like less than an hour before we need to pass thru immigration, so like always, we had a quick bite at McD and proceed to our departure gate. Here comes to the fun part.....

At the departure gate, we saw a long queue at the gate where the ground staff will do the final round of checking thru your luggage before you board the plane. Well, since we took China airline, I wasn't surprise to see majority of the passenger were China citizens. After I have walked thru the scanner arch thingy, I saw the guy in front of me collected his luggage and was busy checking his document. I could see a lot of luggage came out from the scanner and it was all piling up because of his luggage. He just stood still, checking his document and continue to ignore the whole situation. In normal circumstances, once I said "Excuse me.....could I.....", normally people would quickly excuse themselves or picked up their luggage and apologized or they would offered to hang over my luggage since it's right in front of them. But this ignorant China man, just stood there and continue to ignore me completely. I'm like....WTH....seriously?? I just showed him my annoyed face and pushed my way thru to get my luggage. I don't think he was bothered at all but I'm sure he knows I was annoyed. I texted Mariah and I spent like 10mins ranting to him thru Whatsapp about this incident. How inconsiderate..... Oh well, eventually we boarded the plane and off we go to Guangzhou....a land filled with more ignorant people.... sigh....

It was a 4 hours flight and we reach Guangzhou at 5.50 pm (local time). The weather at Guangzhou was cold and if I heard the captain correctly, I think he mentioned it's 8 degree. Anyways, the air was cold and dry, just the way I like it. Little did I know.....how annoying the next 8 hours will be....

Long story short, a couple of incident that happened in Guangzhou:

• The ground staff gets annoyed with us because we did not truly understand what they were trying to say or explained
• Due to long transit time (more than 8 hours), we were suppose to get onto the shuttle that will bring us to our hotel room but the staff who is supposed to guide us to the shuttle was rushing her way thru the crowd, not putting into consideration that majority of us are not familiar with the airport.
• In total, she was suppose to bring 20 of us to the shuttle but 12 of us were left stranded in the airport because we could not find her. We spent more than an hour asking around but none of the people could tell us where to go.
• By the time we managed to locate the counter and shuttle to bring us to the hotel, it was already 8 pm. 3 hours of running around in Guangzhou airport like headless chicken looking for the mother hen.
• We reached the hotel around 8.10 pm and it took us more than 40 mins to register. Talking about efficiency.... speechless.
• The hotel staff forgot to give us a reminder call to remind us on our shuttle back to the airport

Oh well, after all those hassle, we are all ready to board our next plane to New York at 1.50am. As I was entering the gate, I told myself, I don't think I would ever want to plan a visit to China, unless it is necessary. This 8 hours experience is enough to tell me, China is not going to be a place that I could possibly survive or enjoy......

Prelude : My US trip.....

 

Today while I was taking a warm shower in a cold weather, suddenly I had an idea of having a daily write up of my US trip. Just a thought to make my trip memorable.  I know it had been so long since I blogged but I'm going to try and do this...

 

To simplify things,  I'll list down a couple of people who will pop up frequently during my US trip blogs:

• AK: my 9 years plus partner
• TJ: AK ex-wife
• JJ: AK teenage son
• CJ: AK teenage daughter

 

AK and me decided to spend Christmas with AK family in US. Yes, although both AK and TJ is no longer together but they are still in good talking term and yes, me and her do blend in well in the same picture. Complicated eh.... yes,  I know but let's put this aside for now and I'll share about it topic in another blog post.

 

3 years have passed since our last christmas with his family in US, back in 2012. It was a white Christmas back then and I was hoping it would snow again but unfortunately tjis year is not going to be a white Christmas. *sob sob*

I took 3 weeks off my pathetic work, which I will talk about this in another post (seems like a lot of side stories to cover ya.... so dramatic). I will leave Malaysia on 17-Dec-15, arrive back to KL on 5-Jan-16.

OK. .. let my epic christmas story begins.....