Last Post About Petrol Prices (for this year la)

Last post on petrol prices, I promise. For this year.

I snapped this pic somewhere in the city the other day, i then realized that a lot of the petrol stations have put up this sign.

Anyway, if you can’t see it properly, this is what it says:

*sigh*… RM1.62 man… soon its gonna be more expensive than most of the shares I own… hahaha…

Technorati Tags: petrol, fuel, petrol prices, fuel prices, unleaded

Post Christmas Hangover (and some pics)

Alright, its the third day of christmas, and I’m typing this, most of you are either still sleeping on your holiday or sitting in a half empty office like me.

Well, at least it’s a nice morning, and I had 2 days of holidays myself. Very tiring two days, but quite fun.

And now 3 more days of work, then more parties and festivities…

Anyways, some pics taken over the past few days.

Below: This is taken from the centre court at the Curve, Mutiara Damansara. Their first Christmas decoration was a little disappointing, and there was considerably less people there as compared to 1 Utama or MidValley. Maybe they had to contend with a smaller centre court, but at least it was a lot better than Sunway Pyramid’s ‘Looney Tunes’ deco…

Below: Here’s another pic, I’ve no idea what those ‘horns’ are meant to be.

Below: I’ve looking up from the centre court, i suppose if it was night time this shot might have made more sense. Really, they should have had more decorations!

Below: This last one was taken at Ikano Power Centre, there wasn’t much deco either, but there was this sale going on in the courtyard and I thought it made a good pic.

Nope, no more pics. Maybe i’ll snap more this weekend during the parties…

Christmas is the Time

But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

To all my brothers and sisters of the Cross, these are the last days. Merry Christmas and keep the faith. Maranatha!

And a special shout out to my readers and bloggers who are celebrating, have a good weekend…

Famous People and Their Favourite Christmas Carols

Today is the Thursday before Christmas, there are 3 more days to the big day.

Short post today, maybe there will be another one later today. Depends on the position of the sun in relation to Venus.

Right. This one is about Favourite Christmas Carols. Mine is ‘O Holy Night’, it isn’t really popular, but I’ve loved it since I started carolling. What’s yours?

Mike Tyson’s favourite Christmas carol:
All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth

Michael Jackson’s favourite Christmas carol:
Little Drummer Boy

Ariel Sharon’s favourite Christmas carol:
O Little Town of Bethlehem

George Bush’s favourite Christmas carol:
Joy to the World

Junichiro Koizumi, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao’s favourite Christmas carol:
We Three Kings of Orient Are

Saddam Hussein’s favourite Christmas carol:
I’ll Be Home for Christmas

Madonna’s daughter’s favourite Christmas carol:
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

can’t think of anymore…

Christmas Decorations at Mid Valley (Yeah, yeah, here we go again)

Today is the Wednesday before Christmas, there are four more days to the big day.

(yep, I’m still counting down the days…)

We heard so much about the ‘White Christmas‘ decorations at Mid-Valley, so last week we decided to go down, brave jam and maniacal shoppers to see it. The place was quite packed, school holidays and all, there were no shortage of people fuelling the Malaysian economy. Economical slowdown? But MNG is on sale!! Speaking of MNG sale, I wonder if Uncle Belacans was there… hahaha…

Okay, first the pics, then the top ten list…

Below: As you can see, the White Witch has already come here before. And also check out the lady giving me weird looks at the bottom left corner of the pic. She’s probably wondering why I’m the only person using a real camera instead of a kick-ass camera-phone like everyone else…

Below: This is another shot of the centre court, this time taken from the upper floor. There were some kiddie shows going on, but I didn’t bother to whip out my camera, anyway the whole perimeter was crowded with people at that time.

Below: This last one at the South Court is themed ‘Little Drummer Boy’ or ‘See Santa Lost 48lbs and Has No Crotch‘. Most of the parents were busy jostling for space to take a pic of their kids. This display made the front page of Sunday’s Star, i believe. However, no crotch aside, I have no idea why Santa looks like he’s going to burst into tears any moment…

Anyways, here ten good things to hear during the frenzy of last minute Christmas shopping…

• “If it’s on sale, it MUST be cheap!”
• “No sir, I’m sorry, we do not carry any make-up products for men here…”

• “$359 for a Luciano Menotti lycra tank top? I can’t believe it’s so cheap!”

• “What do you mean you can’t accept RM1 coins anymore?!”

• “Excuse me, please get in line to pay at the cashier counter. The line starts downstairs near the toilet…”

• “Hey wait a minute, I came here in the morning with my husband… I haven’t seen him for the last 5 hours! Has anyone seen him?!”

• “Oh dear, I only managed to finish shopping at this floor… looks like I’ll have to come back tomorrow for the third floor of shops. And make sure I bring another gold card to use…”

• “I’m sorry sir, we don’t allow customers to test out the underwear in the fitting room…”

• “Hello? Honey? Can you call the bank again? I burst our credit limit on the platinum card again!”

• “I don’t need a new jacket, (and the fact that nobody wears thick jackets in bloody hot Malaysia), but since it’s 30% off, and the brand is some pretentious Italian name, I MUST GET IT!!!”

Christmas with Us

Today is the Tuesday before Christmas, there 5 days left to the big day.

(I’ll be counting it down everyday til then, so you guys have to be patient with me…)

Here are some pix i took at the Christmas with Us party, there was a big turnout and we had loads of fun, not to mention some delicious turkey to eat…

Below: “Oh my gawd! Check out my skinny legs! I knew i shouldn’t have worn shorts!”

Below: “Gaaah, Somebody call CSI! They have murdered and decapitated Frosty!!”

Below: Things started getting ugly when everyone wanted to do the newspaper’s Sudoku first…

Below: “You call this a Christmas tree? Where are the blinking lights? Where’s the animated Santa and his sleigh? Where are the turtledoves…?”

More to come tomorrow…

Some Things You Do NOT Want to Hear Your Girlfriend Say When She Opens Your Christmas Present

Ah, Christmas gift buying. The very simple activity that fuels 80% of our retail industry in Decembers. I did a post a few days ago, but since I just finished buying Christmas presents for my friends, I’m so inclined to write another post.

Well, there hundred of articles telling you what to buy your girlfriend / boyfriend for Christmas, I thought I’d write about stuff NOT to buy. Hah. You wouldn’t expect anything less from this blog, right?

Some Things You Do NOT Want to Hear Your Girlfriend Say When She Opens Your Christmas Present

• ”Wow. A hundred ringgit voucher for a slimming centre. Gee, you think I’m fat?”

• ”This Mont Blanc pen is so beautiful. It must have cost you a lot of dosh, darling. Too bad you spelled my name wrongly on the engraving.”
• ”Oh, please. I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing this dress, dear. It makes me look like your mother.”
• ”A book! And so thick! No pictures inside? Do I have to read it?”
• ”Oh, wow! My favourite movie on DVD! I love it! Maybe next year you can actually buy me a DVD player since I don’t have one.”
• ”I’m sorry, the necklace is beautiful, but I can’t accept it. Any necklace that isn’t pure gold gives me a horrible rash.”
• ”This is the third watch you given me this year. Are you a regular shopper at Petaling Street?”
• ”Hey! This is the same vase I gave your mom for her birthday last year!”
• ”Yeah, I know this one. It’s on offer at Guardian’s. RM9.90 for two.”
• Hey! I got you the same present!”

A September Day A Long Time Ago

It was a warm Wednesday in September, that day. The sun was warm even in those days, this is some years ago.

In the heat of the afternoon, I knew it was going to be a long day, it would probably go deep into the early hours of the Thursday. I was crouched over the low coffee table on the living room of our small college dorm.

The three of us had taken over the whole living room, including the 2 coffee tables and the chairs. And on the bigger coffeetable, the drawing sheets were laid out for us to work. There was actually 6 of us in the assignment group, but the one was a girl, and girls were not allowed into the guys dorm, and anyway, it’s not like she’s the type that can contribute much. The other two guys were too pooped to do much in the afternoons.

Over the next twelve hours from two in the afternoon, until after the two in the morning, the three of us work non-stop, with only 3-in-1 coffee and dry biscuits for company.

And my trusty red transistor radio.

Back in college, before the age of iPods, Winamp and Bittorent, (Discmans were still relatively new) radio was the ‘in’ thing. Especially when we had 8 FM stations blasting 24 hours of non-stop solid programmed radio.

I was the only one to stay through the 12 hours plus of the day and night (it was after all my dorm in the first place), and sometimes it was only me and the radio.

I remembered in that short time, they played Love Song For a Vampire and Ordinary World seven times each, once every two hours, plus one extra time during request hour. Among many other songs.

Ordinary World. I loved that song. It was so popular at that time, they played it to death on the radio. Right now, I can hear the strains of the opening verse in my head…

Came in from a rainy Thursday, on the avenue
thought I heard you talking softly

I turned on the lights, the TV, and the radio
still I can’t escape the ghost of you

What has happened to it all?
Crazy, some’d say
Where is the life that I recognize?
gone away

Simon Attends Some International Conference in KL

Really, you would think they’d send someone else to a conference attended by international delegate? But since the topic of the seminar was not something important like world peace or press freedom, i wasn’t fully paying attention. This was sometime back.

Anyway, i thought i heard some of the following. Or they could have been voices in my head. Please note it was NOT the big international leader’s summit in KL, OK?

• What? You mean we’re NOT having durian for tea time? How can?!

• As a memento for all of you attending this wonderful conference, we are giving all of you this precious, collectible, rarely minted RM1 coin!

• Can we end soon? If possible I want to get back to the hotel room to catch the rerun of ‘Friends’.

• Can the international delegates please pay attention to the important speeches, and refrain from getting distracted with other things, like blogging and doing Sudoku?

• Wait, wait, stop the powerpoint slides for a moment, do I hear snoring somewhere in int the conference hall?

• Hey, you got to stay in the 5-star Golden Phoenix hotel? They put me up in the crappy Hotel New Kiang Nam! Outrageous!

• Oh you the chocolates in the minibar are NOT complimentary? I just finished two packs last night, and they keep refilling it!

• Who finished the coffee sweets?

• Say, tonight, after the conference, can you bring us to Petaling Street? I’ve heard so much about it…

• Hey, can you cover for me while i go back to my room to catch a nap? if anyone asks you, i’ve gone to the toilet…

Lazy December Days

Nothing much happening these days, i suppose a lot of people are winding down during the school holidays.

These days, most of the talk around here is about the road closures, floods and rains and the coming Christmas holidays.

I kind of like these slow days, at least the traffic is as mad as when school is on.

I’m planning to do a few posts on the highlights of 2005, it has been such a interesting year to say the least.

First off, perhaps my readers can share about the most significant event in your life this past year - whether it was a personal incident, national news story, or someone you met. Let me know, i’d love to hear about it…