The D&G's...

D&G Tumbler

2008-11-02T20:01:00.000-08:00

Hi Darren,

It's the 19th of October!!
Wishing you a Happy Birthday and giving you a tumbler...
With the double wall insulation, it can serve drinks better!
Am not encouraging you to have more coffee, it also works well on hot chocolate or water...

Visiting the starbuck, you must remember...
Bringing this for your drink, you will get discount of one dollar!
Hot drinks only as this tumbler will make your cold drinks lesser...
Wash it properly after use, to keep it last forever!

Starbuck's Create Your Own Tumbler

Transitioning to ....

D&G Tumbler

5 silly stuffs we did in Phuket ...

2008-10-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

1st - Mini bicycles, with extra small saddles, short-length pedals, missing grip (mine one, if you notice - cudn't believe we actually ride on that!

2nd - The side effect of spending whole afternoon with Miss LUCY (our lady boy tour guide)

3rd - Poor shot, can still tell that you are not even 1 meter off the ground, try harder next round!

4th - Hmmm... dunno if they can hear the baby-kick sounds in HIS stomach or Errh...

5th - I can't see anything, what's that for?

Hong Kong & Shenzhen - March '07

2008-10-16T20:30:00.000-07:00

Yeah... this blog is written upon request. Actually I've been thinking of writing this right after I came back from the trip, just that my assignments in school (Design & FYP) and my part-time-jobs which had occupied all my time, did not allow me to do so. Anyway, good times are hard to forget and I do still remember every little thing about Hong Kong and Shenzhen, especially, the Disneyland!

The 5D4N trip started off with an early flight. Lucky for me, my house is not far from the airport, getting up at 6.00am in the morning was still bearable. However, this was not the case for my boyfriend and his family, who live more than 30km away from the airport... I suggested him to stay up whole night since he usually sleeps at 3am. I mean what’s a big deal to wait for another one hour to bathe or get everything ready! I slept about 5hours but it did not take any toll on me – I was in a happy mood I guess. After checking in our bags and ourselves, finally, we were on board one of the best airline in the world, Cathay Pacific. Everything about it was awesome except the seat (economical class what), so it was kind of small. They served good breakfast; a variety of fruits cut into piece, pastries, sausages, omelets, buns and refillable fruit juices. My breakfast was accompanied with the shows playing in the small TV right in front of my seat! I made a choice of Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst, a great but a bit slow show, thus I watched till sleepy (not because of the lack-of-sleep in the night before, it was the show!). After four hours, we touched down at the Hong Kong International Airport. The airport was so big (not if you compare with Suvarnabhumi, Bangkok) that we actually traveled in the airport, from one point to another, by train! (It’s up to your imagination) Our group comprised of 34 people, including our young and responsible tour leader, Ah Leong. We had our first lunch in the airport; it was not cheap (Hong Kong’s foods are known expensive). Fortunately, most of our meals were included in the package.

The first destination was the most popular temple in Hong Kong, the Wong Dai Xin temple. The temple was filled with many people, both tourists and locals. But one thing in common, they were holding one-size joss sticks. The rules and regulations:

what a confused picture ...

The place was very smoky till my eyes went teary. Anyway, I still managed to make smiles and take a few shots there.

Then, we were headed to ‘lui yan kai’, Hong Kong’s ‘chi cheong kai’, shopping heaven for imitations. The street was noisy as the tourists were busy bargaining for bags, watches and clothes to get the best price. As I walked, I could scent the smell of drains – really stinky. I thought to myself, how such a developed region could have such an unkempt drainage system. I was complaining about it until I realized the odor was not from the drain afterall – it was the smell of Hongkies’ favorite snack, ‘Chao Tao Fu’. After some advices from people at home, and the fact that I was already there, I did not hesitate to try one piece. Errr… the taste, I would say not as nice as my friends recommended me, wrong stalls maybe.
Next, it was dinner time, the foods served were crabs, prawns, geese, pork, scallops, fish and some veggies, for me, they were none other than high-cholesterol and oily chows. And we were actually eating the same stuffs everyday, couldn’t imagine how the weighing machine will react with me on top after this trip.

After dinner, we went up to one of the richest residential area, Victoria Peak to view the night scene of Hong Kong, the sky scrappers such as IFC and 40-storey Four Season Hotel from the top of the peak. It was fabulous and romantic. After the cool breezing view from Victoria Peak, we were brought to the famous Hong Kong wax museum, Madame Tussauds. It features more than 100 wax figures of local and international celebrities and important historical people. My camera was very busy shooting me during that time. I took photos with famous artist, Andy Lau, skilled football player, David Beckham, well-known actor, Brat Pitt, elegant Princess Diana and so on. Although they are not real, I did enjoy taking pictures with them.

Shenzhen
On the early morning of the second day, we had our breakfast or so called ‘Dim Sum’ in a Chinese restaurant. Hongkies’ ‘Dim Sum’ is the must-try for tourists. Sadly, the foods were ordered prior to our arrival, meaning I did not get to choose from the menu (a disadvantage of group tour). Anyway, I gave my good appraisal to the porridge, it tasted really good, and it was the best porridge I ever ate in my life, no joke. After breakfast, we were taken to some fishing villages to see how their indigenous people live in the sea. They are mainly senior citizens, including the boatmen, as most of the young generations had moved to the land. However, I considered myself lucky, managed to have a look at these villages before they actually diminish.

Soon, we continued our trip to Shenzhen, China, waved goodbye to Hong Kong for two days (as we would be back on the fourth and fifth day). After some jokes and traveling stories shared by Ah Leong, the boring journey in bus and train, immigration procedures and a short distance of ‘stewardess-style walking’ – walking and pulling luggage at the back with one hand – finally we reached the fastest growth city of China. This city is very developed, as I first arrived in the city, I was amazed by the buildings and traffics, ‘oh gosh… this is not what I thought China is supposed to be’, I said to myself. It looked sort of like second Hong Kong but the living expenses here are so much lower. I got myself a pair of high-heel covered shoe at only 39 Renminbi (Rm20) during shopping at the night market. The price for this type of footwear would be tripled if I were to buy in Malaysia. Everyone in our group enjoyed shopping very much, spent without sparing for second thought as the stuffs were extremely cheap.

In the next morning, we were supposed to have a western style buffet breakfast in the hotel café but there were no omelets in sight. Instead, some ‘Dim Sum’ was provided. Weird! Then, commenced our drive to ‘Windows of the World’, one of the top local attractions.

A visit to here was like a tour around the world. It comprises of countless interesting sites ranging from ancient architectural buildings like the Colosseum and the pyramid of Giza, to hi-tech sky scrappers such as the Eiffel Tower. All of these were built with smaller dimensions, or ratios, as compared to the original ones. The Eiffel Tower in Shenzhen is 1/3 of the one in Paris. We climbed up to the first floor, it killed my leg muscle (no jogging for a long time) – can’t imagine how it’s like when I visit the real one in May. I took a picture with Taj Mahal (1:15) since India is a place that I might not be able to rest my foot on in future. I, as a Penangite, was so proud to see the mini Kek Lok Si temple (1:15) was there too. Besides the above mentioned, there were also Niagara Falls, Stonehenge, the Leaning Tower, Notre Dame and Mount Fuji. Unfortunately, we did not get to ski at Fuji-san as we were rushing to the ‘Miniature of China’ – another similar kind of tourist destination where little replicas of renowned buildings were exhibited. This time, I was clueless on the names of all the replicas except for the Great Wall; thus, there was no interest for me to take photos with any of the buildings.

Disneyland
Well, the fourth day was the day I have been waiting for in my whole tour. As I said earlier, Hong Kong foods are extremely expensive compared to those in Malaysia, what more the second Disneyland in Asia. While we were having the partial-western style breakfast in the morning, some immoral thoughts came to our minds – to steal some pastries so that we could eat in the Disneyland when we are hungry. After all the planning (how to put them in bags) and observing (the waiting staffs and other hotel guests), Ryan, my boyfriend’s brother, managed to take an adequate amount of bread and ‘Pao’ to supply our lunches. We felt so happy and gratified. Satisfactions and excitements ended real soon once we got up the bus. Ah Leong came out with one sentence that really shocked us – we were not allowed to bring foods into Disneyland, except a bottle of drinking water. It was only 500ml per person, mind you. Oops, poor us, after all the trouble.

Soon, we reached the children’s dreamland. As we were walking towards the main gate, there were Disney songs playing along the boulevard, ‘I can show you the world, shinning, simmering, splendid, tell me princess…’ It felt like I was in a fairyland that time. There were castles, fountains, a clock tower, and other interesting sites such as Tarzan’s tree house and Lion King’s den. We rode on an adventurous boat and space roller coater, sat in a honey pot to experience Winnie’s story, had interaction show with Stitch, saw Lion King’s show on stage, and not to mention the 3D Mickey show – the activity I liked the most. This theater has the world’s largest 3D screen, a show that brought us into the world of Disney which combined our senses, i.e. vision, hearing and smell, with the movie as one, to give a better 3D effect.

All the disney characters were shown during the daily parade. They were Mickey and Minnie, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale, The Toy Story family, Snow White with seven dwarfs, Cinderella and so on, standing on their respective mobile display homes. Enjoyable moments do not last long – the clock stroked 7pm just after some games and it was only 30 minutes left till closing. Before everything ended, the lights along the lanes went dim and the songs turned louder out of a sudden. Everybody’s focus was directed towards the main castle which was lit up abruptly. Then I realized it was the time for the scheduled fireworks display. The countless sparks and explosions appeared in the sky made me feel romantic and speechless. It was the most beautiful fireworks display I ever seen in my life, far better than what I experienced in the many New Year celebrations. I left the Disneyland reluctantly and went back to hotel. Although tired, I was still very eager to shop around the streets of Hong Kong before leaving, but unfortunately, my boyfriend, fully exhausted, was already glued onto the comfortable hotel bed when I came out from the toilet. Not wanting to wake him up, I decided to settle for the only three items I bought previously.

We were allowed to have enough sleep on the last day because there was nothing else to do according to the tour agenda. Since the Chinese restaurant was just around the corner, Ah Leong suggested that we walk there for breakfast. That was our very last walk along the streets of Hong Kong. Not long after, we were on our way back in the A320 of Cathay Pacific.

Overall, I find the trip a little packed, schedule wise, but due to that also, we managed to cover most of the interesting places in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. I felt really satisfied following this tour, good food, comfortable accommodations and a friendly tour leader. I bet I will be missing Minnie Mouse. Sigh… a long blog I have written.

Do you still remember ...

2008-08-01T22:56:00.000-07:00

What you write about OSC in the first card she received?
Over Sophisticatedly Clever
Optimistically Smart Capricon
Oriental Superb Chick

Dear 晓卿,
I hope you know what I am writing,
Let me start with what I think of you,
And something about you, that I knew,
Intelligent, acute yet charming, (really?)
I think you like performing, (you are right)
Brave, as well as daring,
Good luck, in your choice of mechanical engineering, (where did you get the info from?)
Creative, initiative, not forgetting, innovative, (wow!)
Umm… yes, a little talkative,
Kind, helpful and benevolent, (you did think so?)
No wonder, magnificent!!
So sweet and lovely outside,
Yet, so sophisticated and cunning inside,
Someone perfect, as a guide,
Some nice, to stand beside, (that was why you go after me?)
I think I’ve ran out of moral value,
I swear, that’s what I actually think of you!! (I believed you)

Now, may I continue,
Though it’s only two months I’ve known you,
Since Valentine’s day, I remember,
We just clicked together,
Quarrel, we will never,
As long as we forgive each other,
We will, however,
Be friends, forever…
Your surname? I think it’s Ong, (Yup)
And if I’m not wrong, you are Capricon, (absolutely yes)
Was it 12th January? (Hmm…)
And please don’t go after Phaik See… (I asked her right after I read this)
I’d like to thank you for being a FRIEND, (you are welcome!)
And for giving me a title. “GOOD MAN”, (you were and you still are now)
I’d also like to apologize,
For what I’ve done wrong and not realize,
As my vocabulary is limited,
It’s until here, hopefully, as you’ve expected…

This is a poem I create,
Whether you like it or not, you must appreciate, (I did appreciate it)
The number to call is 8995528,
Ring up for fun, a chat or even a date,
Address is 16, Jln Chee Seng One,
Visit me, anytime you want,
Aand if you were to come,
Press the bell, ask for Darren Kam…

Paris 4th – 7th May’ 07

2008-07-21T01:24:00.000-07:00

We arrived at the Paris De Gaulle Airport in the morning, 7am. After roughly 11 hours in the 747, I felt rather free when I was landed. In my eyes, I saw a man started busy collecting fliers, maps, and train routes at the tourist information counter in the airport. (Key learning: those are free, collect as many as you can, you would use them anyway) Yes, that was HIM, my 2-month Europe trip partner.

The first place we headed was the Paris most famous cathedral, Notre Dame. She was so beautiful and stunning, quiet and peace, we had a quick round walk inside the cathedral with our big backpacks and daypacks, accidentally knocked some of the tourists, several times but luckily did not banged on the sacred displays, candles and statues. Before we left the doorsteps, a message ‘Peace on Earth’ and two signatures were created by us on the big book there; we have been there, huh? Then, we sat on a bench under a big tree, outside the huge cathedral for a rest, had some photos taken, and also cereal bars eaten, the feelings were so relax and blissful, HE looked at me and said, ‘xiao qing, we are in Paris!’. I could see nothing but just a word ‘happy’ written all over HIS face. My happiness was doubled at that time.

After that, it was time for us to search for a place to settle down our stuffs and accommodate us the night. There we came to a hostel but yet named it as hotel by the owner at the signboard (the room was just okay, a real ar ar okay and the stairway to the room was older than my grandmom, I guessed). However, we decided to take it without any second thoughts as the backpacks were killing our backs after walking for so long.
$: Hotel Rochechouart, double room (attached toilet and bathroom), 40€ per night.

Next, we visited the second must-see cathedral which was built at the top hill, the highest point in Paris, the Sacre- Coeur. On the way up, we walked pass many road side restaurants and souvenir stalls. There were many tourists sitting at the steps right outside the cathedral, enjoying the sun. We sat there as well just to have fun following the whites, to enjoy the scenery and to take photos. But for just merely 10mins, we had moved ourselves to a shaded place; it was too hot for us, Malaysians!

With the 3-day train tickets (8.60€/ticket) purchased, we were allowed to travel up north and down south in Paris as many times as we liked. By looking at it was still early after coming down from Sacre-Coeur cathedral, we made up our mind to have the icon of Paris, the Eiffel Tower as our next destination for the evening. The real Eiffel Tower was far taller than the one I saw in Shenzhen’s Windows of the World. In order to save money, we chose to climb up (taking lift is another alternative) to the second floor (668 steps), the highest stage where we were allowed to climb up to, and to take lift (no other options) from there to the top. The nearly-700-step was so tiring, luckily I had my muscles exercised (jogging and gym) before the trip, I thought to myself. The view of Paris city from the second floor (not fully fenced) and the top (fully fenced) was breathtaking and great, the city structure was well aligned and symmetry, like it was planned ahead before it was actually built. We did not stay long there at the top as it was so windy and the wind was chilling.

We had an early sleep that night due to jet lack I guessed. The ‘hotel’ bed was so soft and lumpy. When I was on the bed alone, HE nearly could not see me. The lousy bed needed 2 people to sleep on it at the same time to balance up the uneven parts. I was in my sleeping bag that night due to the yellowish on bed sheet.

Our day started with brunches (I had a Panini of salmon and cheese and HE had a pitabread stuffed with chicken and veggie) at the roadside stalls on our way to the Jardin Du Luxembourg. Jardin means garden in French; Du Luxembourg is a big and beautiful garden in the city. The trees all lined up neatly at the sides of the boulevard and bowed to us (as wind blew) as we walked in to the big pool with a small fountain in the centre. There were some chairs nearby the pool where we could sit down to take a good look at the garden, to enjoy the wind and fresh air, and also to feed the birds that were around us. It was amazing to notice that the birds were so friendly to come so near to us for food, human seemed harmless to them.

We spend the rest of our afternoon by walking around Paris, along the river.

We met our first couch surfer friend, Fabien Lajoye, in the evening. He brought us to try the French snack, Crepes. Crepes is like what we have in Malaysia, Apom, a think layer of pancake (flour) that folded up with anything you like, from fruits (banana, strawberries), poultry (ham) to dairy products (cheese and chocolate). It was yummy. Next, he took us to meet up some of his friends (French, Mexican, but mostly American) for dinner. We had Mexican food at a small restaurant named La Luna, we enjoyed it very much, not only the food but also the times spent with them. After dinner, we all went party at the American-Latin pub nearby; the place was so crowded and noisy. I watched how the girls danced and also followed them with some stupid moves. Overall it was okay! We went back at about 3am by walking (no more trains), and wondered if we could wake up early for tomorrow’s plan.

Clock stroked 8am, we woke up reluctantly. It was the first Sunday of the month where the entries to the famous museum in Paris, Musee Du Louvre, were free. We managed to get to the place at 10.30am; it was already a very long (500m) queue (opened at 9am). The largest (there were three of them) see-through pyramid outside the museum was so elegant; the place was used to film the movie, the Da Vincci Code, starring by Tom Hanks before. We were in the museum after about 30minutes wait (faster than we could imagine high efficiency, we claimed!). The museum was huge, 3 storey and consisted of many zones. Although I am not an artistic person but some of the large paintings and sculptures did wow me. I was a bit sleepy along the visit, due to late sleep last night and also the art piece did not really impress me. However, the chance to have a glance at the original Mona Lisa Portrait was satisfying enough.

Afterward, we headed to Arc De Triomphe the arc honours those general that fought for France during Napoleonic wars, their names were carved inside and top of the arc. We continued with a walk at the Champs Elysees, which is connected to the arc, the avenue where all the branded shop lots located, including the 5-storey LV (Louis Vuitton) boutique. Besides shops, there were many restaurants too, all looked full, guessed it was Sunday!

We bought Kebab (served with fries) as our dinner, and had it while walking around the city and back to our host's couch. After showers, we packed our bags, had some chats with Fabien and also passed him a small token we brought from our hometown, then zzzz ...

On the very next morning, we bid goodbye to Paris and our lovely host, Fabien (we were gonna miss him, we thought, well, we do really miss him and think of him from time to time now) and headed to our next planned destination.

My Mood

2008-07-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

What determines your mood today, tomorrow?

Work satisfaction? Health condition? Financial situation? Or your appearance?
For me, my 50% mood of the day is determined by HIM, he has the authorization to control the half of me everyday. He will make my day with just a call to tell me how happy he is today, it might sound silly, I know but it’s true, just like the famous quote in the fairy tales, ‘I’m happy if you’re happy’… Lol! I’m more pleased if his boss appreciates him than my boss praises me, and of course I feel more miserable if his works encounter difficulties or blocks than my works face that. So, please be happy for me, my MAN.

Hampton Court Palace Maze

2008-07-12T06:39:00.000-07:00

Try to memorize the Maze map hardly

Arr... lost is the Maze

Luckily I have HIM, we made it to the centre

5th June

2008-07-11T06:49:00.000-07:00

Is it typo? 5th of June? Special occasion? Nope... What is 5th June then, you may ask... I leave you to find out.

It all started when I was asked to accompany a friend (Eveline) to visit the weekend’s art work stalls in Queensbays Mall during one of my breaktimes when I was working there. If I could remember and if I’m not mistaken, it was last year September. Eveline was so in love with her boyfriend to have a thought of making something special for him. As we walked, we came to a knitting stall where we stopped and when we created trouble to ourselves. The stall owner, a couple (Kelly, the teacher and her husband) welcomed us with warm smiles and tried to introduce and promote us the beauty of knitting art. They also showed us some samples of Kelly’s work piece (knitted top, baby shoes, and bag) that hung at the small stall. As I flipped through the pages with all the knitting design samples in a magazine that placed nicely on the table, I saw one man sleeveless vest, which had caught my attention. Yes, my muscular man will look nice on this, so I thought. And the next thing I know, I found myself back at the stall with money. I decided to make one for HIM. I admit I am a choosy person, especially to choose something for my loved ones. I had difficulty in choosing the materials and colors, wool or cotton? Grey or light brown? By looking at Malaysia’s weather and to make sure that he would wear it, I went for cotton in material wise. But for color, thanks for Eveline’s fast decision, she chose grey, so I picked the other one, light brown. We were not going to choose the same color as we have chose the same design; it was a No Way, definitely!

The starting part was so tough. I made several mistakes between the lines which I had to re-start the whole line. I started to lose patient, not even a day. Besides, you would never want to see the way I hold the two knitting sticks when I am knitting. The less-than-2gms tool seemed like kilograms when they were at my hands. The weird style I did with the sticks and also the full-of-mistakes 3cm bottom lines told all, I was a really typical beginner at that time. I learned the first pattern, K1P1 (up and down) for the vest bottom. It took me a month to complete the just 5cm K1PI. What could I do? Each time I make mistakes, I could only meet Kelly during weekends. If you don’t know, I’m actually working plus staying in Kulim during weekdays. Next, it came to the most boring part, the same knitting pattern, K1 and P1 alternately in lines (considered, pattern-less for me) for 38cm length, to make the back side piece of the vest. For your information, I need to knit the front side and the back side separately in two pieces and join them into one afterwards. With that 38cm practice, I actually got my knitting skill speed up but got my interests lowered at the same time. Then, it was mid of October, I did not manage to make it on time, HIS birthday was a few days away, ‘luckily he did not know about this, so I will make it as Valentine’s Day present then’. I said to myself. I should not be so ambitious that time to think that I could finish the vest in 2 months, although Kelly claimed that those experienced can. You know what, since then, it was kept in a nice paper bag, placed stagnantly on my room closet… for months.

When I almost forgot about it, Eveline called me up suddenly to ask me about the progress of my knitting. She was at her second piece already. I was so ashamed that time. She told me that the second piece was with some knit pattern, more interesting. This has then become the motivation for me to take out the full-of-spider-web paper bag again, thanks to Esther’s (a close friend of mine and Eveline) negative comments which were actually positive encouragements to me also. I continued to knit upwards to the arm holes, back neck and to finally finish my first piece.
I made it (50% only), I was so happy, I bet Esther would not look down at me anymore… but then again, my ECD (Intel acronyms: expected complete date) was being pushed out to June, our anniversary month; Feb was too soon to arrive. I committed to myself to surely get the done in four months time, else, the next special day to give present would be HIS birthday, in October (which was initially my plan, but was in 2007).

The second piece started with the K1PI again, I made no mistakes at all that time and actually got praise from Kelly when I showed her. It was significant difference under comparison with the first piece. After that, a new tool, mini bumpy stick was needed to make the two cables pattern at the front side. Yes, Eveline was right; it was really satisfying and interesting to see the cables structured up 1cm by 1cm as I knitted. Besides, it was nice to touch on the uneven (3D) cables part. Weeks passed, uncountable times I visited Kelly for helps and advices, I made up to the V-neck part finally. This was when the remembrance played in, the knit times changed each row as it went upwards and with cables in at the same time. I accidentally skipped the cables a few times where I have to see Kelly cruelly un-knitted off the whole line, the effort I did, one by one, back to the beginning. I could not help it or ignore it as the mistake would make the vest look weird to have a line in the middle without cables. So...

June came, I had the two piece of my hard work at my hand, thought that was going to be very easy to combine them up, buffered myself for one week to do that. I was wrong, it was so complicated, and the combination at different sides has different ways. Furthermore, I could not approach Kelly as HE came back in the weekend; it was supposed to be a secret. I tried so hard to find time, even I had an hour, I would drive to Bayan Baru, just to put the two pieces together. I worked OT almost every other night, and I managed to finish it on the night before our anniversary day.

Then, I passed to him tomorrow…. the 5th June!

And if you still do not what is 5th June...

Take a look at below

This is 5th June... Hope HE likes it!