When i was a kid, we never ever went for a beach holiday. Not even for a day trip. The only time i could remember was the 3 times i went for church camp in Port Dickson. This was in the early 80’s, when Port Dickson still had nice beaches and green forests. I remember the beach games they organized, and the taste of salty water when i went for a swim. But any Malaysian can tell you, the Straits of Malacca beaches are nothing much to shout about, regardless what our tourism brochures tell you. One time after SRP 2 friends and I took a mini-road trip to the…

You know, its that dreary time of the year when the festivities are over, you’ve spent all your bonus money,and the next public holiday isn’t for 3 months. What does 2012 hold for the rest of us? 2012 London Olympics If the London Underground workers’ strike doesn’t cripple it, that is. Am i going to watch any events? Not likely. Who’s going to win the 100meters? I dunno, are Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis still running? Worst. Olympic Logo. Ever. The Hobbit: The Movie: The First Part: An Unexpected Journey Really? its two movies now? I remember it was a thin book, like 300 pages. Still, I think it’s gonna…

Ever since I started actively painting back in 2009, I get asked this question a lot. There aren’t many art supplies store in the Klang Valley area, partly due to the miniscule art scene here. Most of the stores open near local art colleges to capture the ready market. Of course, if you’re looking primary school watercolour or poster colour sets you can find them in any of the thousands of stationery store across the country. Even bookstores sell them. What I’m talking about here are supplies for fine art like professional grade watercolours, oil and acrylic paints, primers, canvas, etc. So here’s a short list below. It is by…

Happy New Year, everyone! and with the regularity of my postings, I might as well wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year now… In a blink of an eye 2011 has passed us and it has been a very eventful year for me. As with the past few years, here’s my review of the year in 9 points. Why 9? You have to read one of my old posts to find out why (here are the editions for 2010, 2009 and 2008). Androidified 2011 started with me finally getting an Android. Goodbye Nokia / Sony Ericsson, hello free apps. After a year, I’m still enjoying the Android experience, but I’m…

You know how I’m into trying new things and new experiences, right? So for our year end holiday, we went for a 5D/4N cruise with Royal Caribbean International. You mean something like Star Cruises? Well, NO, I have to tell everyone. This is a world of difference from that. It’s hard to explain, but its something you’ve got to experience for yourself. They are very professional, friendly, everything (well almost everything) is luxurious, and your entire trip is packed with activities. As the cruise director says, you don’t sleep on Royal Caribbean, you can sleep when you go home. One downside is that they don’t allow passengers to board in…

My wife’s birthday is coming, so i thought rather than the usual usual, i got her tickets to one of her favourite Hong Kong singers back in the 80’s – the forever 25-year old Alan Tam. It was only a coincidence that i pass by the billboard advertising his concert everyday, one day it just struck me that this would be something really different. As you know, I’m very much into trying new things and expanding my horizons. As i said, my wife growing in Cantonese Ipoh, Cantopop was pretty big. Me? Personally? As a kid, I watched all the TVB serials as a kid with my mom, remember those…

(For the previous parts in this travelogue, see Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4) Nothing much to report on Day 5, only that we had to wake up at an ungodly hour of 5.30am (3.30am Malaysian time) to catch and early flight. We spent the night before trying an almost impossible task of packing everything into our luggage bags (too much gifts and stuff!). Woke up, ate our breakfast and checked out. Checking out was a breeze, it was only a matter of dropping our keycards with the security guard (the front desk doesn’t open until 9am). We drove our little Nissan Tiida down the Gold Coast…

(For the previous parts in this travelogue, see Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3) Last full day in Gold Coast! Day 4 started a little later than usual, left the apartment late. Today we were going further up north to the place almost everyone goes when in Gold Coast… Movie World I guess most people my age first heard of Movie World back in the day when they used to run these ads in TGV cinemas before the previews… those days TGV was still cool and every weekend we’d hang out in 1 Utama. The ads would show all the Looney Tunes and comic book characters feature in the…

So we’re now at Day 3 in Gold Coast (Day One and Two here). Woke up bright and early to sunny yet cool weather again. I was initially worried of rain during my stay here, but thankfully not a single drop of rain came, nor any extreme hot weather. Come to think of it, I didn’t sweat a single drop during my stay there (UNLIKE here…). But that didn’t mean I wore the same shirt everyday… Whale Watching I set my mind to catch the whales months ago when my good friend Raymond told me about it (he came to GC a few years back with his family). He was…

(For the first part in this travelogue, see here) Day two start faaaar too early for me. with the sun rising before 5pm in early summer, i was awaken with too little sleep. So i watched some TV waiting for time, not realizing that i started to doze off a bit. (Cool seabreeze greets you bright and early) Breakfast was bread, butter and some ham we bought at Woolworth’s the day before. And lots of good Australian coffee. Mmmm… We left our hotel in Broadbeach at about 9.30am and drove north up the Gold Coast Highway, coz we were going to… SEAWORLD! SeaWorld Took us about 25 minutes to queue…