Dec 26th Tsunami Memorial Day

4 years ago to the day... i was among the many who was listening to the news of the devastation that took many a life on this beach in the morning hours of the day. All the sunbathers and holiday makers were caught unawares when a Tsunami hit this beach and destroyed lives and property. I was just too stunned at the time witnessing on television the rising death toll which caught everyone by surprise. 4 years on, i am standing on the same beach that took the brunt of natures' fury.

Students are digging the beach sand and building a memorial to those that they lost 4 years ago.

Students from different schools were allocated sections of the beach to create their own memorial.

Even this little fella was busy digging holes in the beach for the lighting of candles.

Christmas Getaway

Christmas 08 was a spontaneous getaway for me. On a suggestion and a spontaineous response i am on my first flight out of Malaysian airspace and beached at Phuket for Christmas.

I wasted no time in getting undressed for a walk down Patong Beach. The whole beach was decked with rent-a-chair and what a myriad of colors. I was early so the beach was practically deserted as most of the tourist were probably still asleep from their late night parties and rendezvous. While walking along the beach i realised that i am standing on the same beach that experienced nature's destructive force of the Tsunami. A tourist taking another tourist taking a shot of the Tsunami Evacuation Route sign that is placed along the roadside.

After 2, no make that 3 crazy months at the office I needed a break and a getaway. Things were so crazy i was so stressed out at work. I have not reached such levels of stress in my whole entire career. If some fucker had decided to push my buttons the wrong way it would have been adios amigo but i am glad that i also have my ragtag team in KL that has kept me sane. Our craziness keeps us sane. Not something many can understand but necessary. I was very much a bundle of nerves at the end of the day. I was proffesionally a wreck.

Someone comes along and gives me a nudge and i landed in Phuket...a rendezvous with life!

Sawadeekap from Phuket

Much of what i write today is news of yesterday or even yesteryear. Life kinda picked up at the tailend of the year. One last wedding for the year, a chance meeting of a decades old friend, a new acquaintance and a fresh start to a jaded old life.

At an age where i think i have seen most of everything, meet people from all walks of life, dated the many, romanced even more, broken the hearts of most and come through bearing scars of my own in the many failed relationships. Such was the devastation in my path that i have even pondered a solitary life, be a lone wolf, enjoy the company of many and live a free and easy life commiting myself to no one. Such was the pain of my guilt till life throws me one last rope. I could use this rope to pull myself together and climb my highest peak or hang myself with it. I was given a lifeline.

On Dec 3rd (My 123...now i know the significance of this number in my life...no accidents eh?) my world took a left turn. On what was to be one LAST date as commited to one other decades old friend, my life took that turn with my world and we both stepped left and know that a new choice, a new journey, an adventure awaits.

I took a deep breath...

In Search of The Sup!!!

It's not like the wedding food is bad but it's just that when one is in Penang, Ipoh or even Taiping ones' appetite becomes...gargantuan in nature. We just wanna makan, makan & makan the local food.

This time...Datin had this sudden dying desire for "The Sup" and hence immediately after we left the wedding dinner we went in search of "The Sup". Our search began at 12:15am and we landed in our very first mamak and they are known for having sup so we were happy cos after that we can go back and sleep.

But i was not to be. This mamak had no SUP. The only bloody sup he had was maggi sup. We got up and left...Datin...disappointed but no worries, we will go find another stall and off we left.

We reached Gurney Road happy and smilling from ear to ear cos there were so many stalls here, we should be able to find some soup. We found this Penang Best Char Koay Teow or so it proclaimed and b'cos of the smell of fried eg i could not resist. I ordered one and well...i wouldn't say it is the best cos i have tasted better. A little too much Aji. Brother James would definately protest. It would not pass his stringent QC. Don't diss him cos he thinks he is the expert where Char Koay Teow is concerned.

This mini rojak tho.. is pretty interesting with it's honey infused hae ko (prawn paste). It was tasty but a little sweet for me.

It does taste as good as it looks. Still we could not find any Sup in this place as quite a lot of stalls were closed by then. So after the side show we left in search for one more place for The Sup. This is our 4th stop by now. By this time Datin's face has lost much of it's cheer.

We then reached Jalan Masjid Kapitan Kling with it's beautiful mosque in sight. I was more interested in the architecture of the mosque while i let Whirlwind and Datin go check out this joint called Nasi Beratur.

People actually beratur (queu up) to eat this nasi. The time was 1:10am in the morning and you can see throngs of people queing up to eat this nasi. I wonder if it is all worth it but i was too famished with the wedding dinner's 7 course meal, supposedly best char koay teow and mini rojak in my belly to try. I promised myself i shall one day return to try it. The girls came back with Datin deeply disappointed that there was no bloody SUP!!! Then she declared...let's go back but Whirlwind was not about to give up on her and declared that we shall find the bloody SUP or she shall not return. Then we went to the 6th destination and still no frickin Sup. This time Datin was very tired and so was i but Datin was sad...cos no SUP.

Till finally the Gods decided that he had our patience tested and proven that this 3 musketeers of sorts was not about to give up yet, he put before us the 3 most beautiful stainless steel pots we have ever seen will steam blowing out it's covers. Immediately we pulled to the left, parked and ran across the road oblivious of the late night traffic to see the mamak nodding affirmatively that YES there is Bloody SUP in his pots! Datin could not contain her joy. It was as if someone just propose to her on bended knees.

The SUP you see above is as good as it looks and that is why you see that beautous face smiling like the Joker. Moral of this story...Never give up and especially never give up on your friends goal. Nothing like seeing that satisfaction knowing you stood by and made a difference. We got a parking summons for all the trouble too...but to quote Whirlwind, "It was a small price to pay, it was worth it."

A Luk Chat Wedding

The tail end of the year had one more celebration for us and that was the wedding of our very own Luk Chat's energizer bunny...Kimmy!

She married this chunky lunky guy from Penang and Whilrwind Wendy, "Datin" Azlin & I made a road trip up to the very jammed island. Her wedding was filled with lotsa beautiful ppl with beautiful bods as both of them run a fitness certification program and prior to that they were trainers at a quite a few gyms. So we 3 KL langs feasted our eyes on all those bods, food was secondary to us at that moment. Nice bods ma...besides i was not the only one looking... Datin & Whirlwind was oogling as well. :)

After the wedding we realised we did not eat as much...so our hunt began!