So the comedian committed suicide yesterday. Can’t say i was a fan, but he undoubtedly was a talented guy. On an average day, i found him his impressions mildly irritating, but sometimes when he does his stand-up routine, he can make me laugh. But most of his comedic roles tend to rehash the same comedic routines. But its when he controls these his overacting tendencies that i find him really funny. Like in Good Morning Vietnam, the one Robin Williams movie i like. Mrs. Doubtfire was pretty good, but I like the latter more. I was fortunate enough to watch Mork and Mindy on telly, though i can’t remember much…

My daughter loves everything K-pop and Hallyu. Including Running Man. I used to watch Running Man, too, but have stopped for some time now. I still think its one of the funniest show on television, better than anything American or Hong Kong TV has done (獎門人系列 can really learn a lot of things from them). But lately, the episodes have become over-produced, and the humour forced. I particular don’t like the heavily-themed episodes, and how they like to unnecessarily play up the romance between guests and the stars. But, anyway, it is still funny and a great concept. So I was thinking to get a Running Man T-shirt for my…

School holidays are here again. Parent these days scramble to find activities to prevent their kids from spending their whole break glued to the PCs or iPads. Or spend it on vacations. When i was small, my parents had a very effective plan. They’d pack us up to my grandmother’s house in Malacca. Together with my cousin, we’d spent days after days playing endless card games (gin rummy and Bluff were our favourites), charades and messing with Balone the dog (he was our dog Scooby’s identical brother). In the evenings we’d play in the field near our house. I remember a small little tomboy of Portuguese descent that i love…

This is part on an ongoing travelogue. To start at the beginning, click here. The second day we pretty much spent it in the hotel, taking brunch swimming a lot. we went out nearby for dinner at a nearby roadside restaurant near our hotel recommended by some foodie blog. Service was slow but food was cheap. All this for RM40. The next day was Sunday and we decided to drive around a bit. Breakfast in Grand Lexis is a simple affair. The restaurant is not big enough for a full crowd so go early or you will have to sit outside. The kids had breakfast in the room. The 2nd…

Well, since I’m updating my blog with the missing travelogues recently, might as well do the one about the short weekend trip to Grand Lexis Port Dickson. This trip was really about staying in the new Grand Lexis hotel, not so much about Port Dickson. I bought a 4 day 3 night stay as a birthday present for my wife. I’ve been going to Port Dickson since i was a kid. Back in the early 80’s, in those days Port Dickson was a sleepy town with deserted beaches. My church had their annual church camps at the NUBE training centre there for 2 years running. As i remember NUBE, they…

(This is part of an ongoing travelogue series. To start at the beginning, click here.) Sunday morning. There’s this new foodcourt right behind my hotel, we’ve been walking past it for past few days. Today we gave it a try. Whaddaya know, the food is pretty good. Especially the char kuey teow and loh mee. Today being the last Sunday of the month (also last Sunday of 2013) and theres a morning flea market along Upper Penang Road. With it being near the sea, it was very windy. This lady made some good cakes. We bought the choc and durian cake. This guy was selling hand carved wood items, using…

(This is part of an ongoing travelogue series. To start at the beginning, click here.) Well, today we decided to be a little more adventurous for breakfast. We drove to Pulau Tikus market. But we couldn’t find any parking near the market, and they were clamping illegal parkers. So we drove a little further away, and walked back to one of the coffeeshops. The shop had excellent roti babi and apam. I also had the har mee. But the big surprise was bumping into Irvin and Geraldine and family at the coffeeshop. What are the chances? They were back from Australia, and they are hundreds of coffeeshops in Penang… Anyway…

(This is part of an ongoing travelogue series. To start at the beginning, click here.) We didn’t book breakfast with our room. This is PENANG, why eat hotel buffet food when there’s hawker food everywhere? Like I said earlier, Hotel Royal is in a good location. Our breakfast was in New World Park, the refurbished old foodcourt, now with the addition of fine dining restaurants and pubs at night. But the foodcourt is still there. My wife says the tong sui (desserts) and ais kacang is famous here. But today, not many stalls were open. I guess its more happening in the evening. Quite disappointing assam laksa. I knew it…

While doing my recently concluded Lombok travelogue, i realized that I did not do a write up on my Penang trip back in December. Well, here goes, before I forget all the small little details. It all began when I was planning a surprise Christmas holiday for the missus. At first i was thinking somewhere nearby, possibly Serendah or Janda Baik. But the hotel situation didn’t favour me, due to the super peak season during Christmas. I was discussing this with my colleague, and she said why not go Penang? Penang! Yes, why not? I got the hotel recommendations from Boone, and managed to get a cheap rate at short…

(This is part of an ongoing travelogue. To start from the beginning, click here) The last day in Lombok started early with breakfast, then a shower before packing up and getting on our taxi to the airport. Senggigi is a long way to the airport, so it was advisable to start off early even though it was a Sunday. Driving through the island, it was interesting to see weekend life of normal folks on the island. In one small village, we saw folks wearing their Sunday best gathering to repair a the roofing on a house beside the main road. In Mataram, we saw some lots of people gather as…