Doing things alone

I was watching a sitcom called "Caroline in the City" last night about an episode where Caroline goes for dinner and a movie alone the first time ever in 30 years of her life. She was so uncomfortable and nervous about doing things alone, that she created a blunder of the entire situation. Watching the sitcom, made me think about my own experiences about going to eat dinner or watching a movie alone. I have been doing that so often in my life, especially in the past 4 years, that it feels so natural to me. That’s what scares me. Is this normal? Its there something wrong with me? I do not know. Though I say that it comes naturally to me, sometimes I cannot deny the fact that I feel self consious about people just staring at you when you are doing things on your own. In restaurants, when you have dinner or lunch, sometimes I get the feeling that people just keep on staring at you. Don't they have anything better to do, I'll think to myself. When you are watching a movie, and you enter the cinema alone, there will always be some lovey dovey couple sitting in the back row that will make you feel uncomfortable being in the cinema alone.

I have really been doing a lot of things alone lately. Been feeling very anti-social lately too, and I have no idea why this is happening to me. The increasing work to be done on the job has not help to improve the cause either. Have been doing lunch and dinner alone, gone shopping alone, sitting at bars having beers alone so many times in the past few months, going hiking almost every week alone, even watched a few movies alone. I know there is nothing wrong with doing things alone, but sometimes you do question yourself, "Why are you doing things alone so often?" or "Why the heck are you doing things alone, why can't you just pick up the phone and call someone?" and my typical answer would be "Lazy to call people lah" or "I just want to be by myself" Why do I always want to be by myself? The typical response back would be, "Then why the hell are you complaining about being alone?" Well, the reality of it is, I have no answer to all those questions. Just hope I get over this "anti-social depression" soon. I think the major problem is ....Sometimes I just think too much about everything......

Someone stealing signboards???

I was driving back from my hometown the other day when I noticed something peculiar about some of the road signs along the highway. When I first noticed these signs, nothing triggered in my mind. But as I continued my journey, I started to see more and more signboards with missing pieces. Then it hit me, could it be that someone or "something" has been stealing roadsigns, either for souveniers or for scrap metal.





Again, people do the strangest things for fun.

Poll1 Results: Which is the worst group of Malaysians drivers?

Below are the results from the previous poll published:



Looks like most of the population agree that motorcyclists are the worse group of drivers on Malaysian roads.

"Gila bola" or football crazy season starts

Yes, yes, my dear friends, football season has started. To be more specific, its the English Premier League (EPL). Yes, I know some of you are going.... yawn, what a boring league. Yes, I agree the EPL can be boring at times, but it sure is pretty interesting becoz off the action that goes on during the live matches, not to mention the crazy things that happen off field. Nevertheless, I think if ASTRO (our Malaysian satelite TV) starts showing more live matches of the Spanish League or the Italian League (which is far more interesting in terms of pace and skill), I am sure the following in Malaysia will grow to be larger, as it is now, we have a huge fan base for Real Madrid FC.. But for now, we are grateful and contented with what the EPL is offering.


The English Premier League

After 3 months of watching endless re-runs of last seasons games and goals, its time now for weekends filled with live and entertaining football matches. Ohhh man, this is what I have been waiting for. The excitement of just sitting at home for 6 hours non-stop on weekends (Saturday/Sunday) watching 22 men chasing a ball around a rectangular field cannot be described with words. May it be in the comforts of your own home, or joining the football craze in some coffeeshop like what a lot of Malaysians do, the joy of watching soccer is undescribeable. All for the sake of lifting this shiny and little cup (see below) at the end of the season, not forgetting the right to gloat to the other premier league teams and a chance to play in Europe with the world's best of the best clubs.


The trophy that everyone is gunning for

"You'll never walk alone" - If you are a life-long Liverpool FC fan like me, you'll know what that means. The reds are back in contention for the Premier League, though the bookmakers are not giving them any chance whatsoever this season.


Anfield - Home of the Reds

As for me, I am still not happy with the strength of the Liverpool team this season as I think we really need to strenghten certain departments in the team. High spending teams like Chelsea and strong teams like MU, Newcastle, Leeds, Arsenal looked rock steady during their premiership opening matches last weekend. We on the other hand, lost to Chelsea 2-1. The reds were not playing as per what they should be, and they looked really weak especially in the midfield area. A lot of things still need to be improved for the Reds of Liverpool if we are to lift the cup again this season, the last time being in 1990. Thats almost 13 years since the Premiership title has visited Anfield. Is this our season? I have no idea, but I will definitely be supporting the Reds regardless the outcome as what I have been doing since the mid 80s.

Nostalgic memories of my Alma Mater

I was having a conversation with a few friends the other day about my old school days. Ahhhhh..... those unforgettable days. Really good to reminiscense about the old days. It definitely brought back lots of sweet (and sour) memories. Hence, in order to commemorate those memories, I decided to go back to my hometown last weekend and take some pics of the historical school landmarks that we have around my hometown of Taiping, Perak, Malaysia.

First up, ST. GEORGE (1) PRIMARY SCHOOL, TAIPING, PERAK. My first school, apart from nursery/kindergarten of course.


St. George (1)

I primary school days were spent here of course. A lot of wonderful and also painful memories here. :) I remember that I really hated school in my first year and always got punished by my teacher. Thinking back, I remember wonderful teachers like Puan Choo, Puan Papinder, Mr. Lee, Mr. Ho, Cikgu Tahir and lots more, who filled our schooling days with fond (and painful) memories. :)

My teen years were spent at ST. GEORGE'S INSTITUTION, TAIPING, PERAK (this is a boy's school ya, not the girls school in Penang).


St. George's Institution




Our school field where we played soccer

A wonderful school indeed. I obtained an excellent education, both in studies and in building up my personality and character, from this school. The teachers were wonderful, though we did have a hard time with some of them (remember guys?). Most of the teachers from my time, have already retired now though. Teachers like Mr. Wong, Cikgu Yeap Heng, Mr. Patrick Teoh, Mr. Ghee, Mr. Ravinder Singh, to name a few. However, one thing that I cannot deny is that I had found irreplaceable life long friends from St. Georges, to whom I am still close with, even till today. Its hard to find the same kind of bond in friendship elsewhere. The GEORGIAN spirit is strong as ever, regardless which part of the world we are in. Never can I replace such wonderful memories from St. Georges, it will forever be etched in my memory banks.

Whenever the phrase 'Georgian enemy' is mentioned, the word 'Edwardian' never fails to come to mind. Yes, yes, KING EDWARD SECONDARY SCHOOL, TAIPING, PERAK (also a boy's school), the arch rivals, sworn enemies for life, 'kill them on sight', the school across the drain, those are the many phrases that we used to describe the inhabitants of that school.

REMEMBER: Georgie Porgie...... KE donkey.......

The school is our neighbouring school.... hence, the phrase, "The school across the drain". Nevertheless, enemies or not, over the years, I have met some wonderful friends from King Edward Secondary School too.


King Edward Secondary School

Wherever there are boys schools, there are bound to be a few girl's school associated to them. St. George's has always been associated with CONVENT KOTA SECONDARY SCHOOL, TAIPING, PERAK. Probably because Convent girls normally came over to St. George's for Form 6. Though we were arch rivals and fighting with convent girls in our 1119, Principle of Accounts, BM and lots of other tuition classes, astonishingly, lots of Georgian guys were hooking up with Convent girls. I guess thats how it all starts out right, fight, fight, fight... then puppy love blossoms.


Convent Kota Secondary School

King Edward Secondary School, on the other hand, were always associated with TMGS (Treacher Methodist Girls school or Taiping Monkey Girls school as a friend of mine once cheekily called it... no offence ladies). The association with KE again was probably due to TMGS girls going over to KE school for Form 6. St. George's however did have rivalry with TMGS girls too if I recall back. Looks like St. George's has been having rivalry with lots of schools. Nevertheless, rival girls school or not, I do have some wonderful friends coming from these girls schools too…..


Treacher Methodist Girls School


But all in all, it was fun growing up in Taiping those days. My schooling life was great and nothing can replace those days My alma mater will always be close to my heart, with those great nostalgic memories printed in my mind for a long time to come.

During my schooling years, I met many friends. Though we were from rivals schools, competing against each other in studies, winning girls hearts' from rival schools, fighting in tuition classes etc. etc., but in the end, regardless of which school we went to, whenever we see each other these days, we do greet each other like we are life long friends. I guess it’s the Taiping spirit, or our hometown spirit, its always nice to meet up with a friend from the "old school" days. To all you guys and girls that I know from SGI, KE, TMGS, Convent, do keep in touch and hope we meet up soon one of these days to reminiscent about our school days.

Cement Tree

Found this interesting tree the other day. Someone or "something" for that matter, had cemented part of the tree, and even had a date written on it. The things people do for amusement. Surprisingly, the tree seems to be growing nonetheless. Lucky it lives, else the beautiful tree would have been sacrificed for the sake of fun.


The Cement Tree


Upon closer inspection, you can see that someone
wrote the date and their name in the cement print

Its funny to see what people will do for fun..... even if it means sacrificing nature.


The beauty of nature, as seen at Taiping Lake Gardens, Perak, Malaysia

Water Fountain




Driving through a forest




Lake Gardens

Repairing my bumper

I sent my car for repair over the weekend. Needed to repair it after being in the "hit and run" incident that happened a few weeks back. My initial ESTIMATES of spending was RM800, with the breakdown as below:

1. Changing of bumper - RM500
2. Changing rear end lights - RM140 (one side)
3. Paint job - RM200
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Grand Total - RM840
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I was fuming at the thought of spending that much money. Nevertheless, I decided to go and repair my car at a "non affiliated" workshop, and I was very happy with the result. Below were my ACTUAL costs:

1. Repairing current bumper with some touch-ups - RM50
2. Straightening out knocked areas - RM30
3. Paint job for the bumper plus 2 doors - RM230
4. Rear end light (cheap-lak one) - RM42
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Grand Total - RM352
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RM352 vs. RM840. Instead of changing the entire bumper, I managed to repair it. And instead of getting an original rear end light, I managed to get something which is close enough to the original. Am quite happy with the results (shown below), though I haven't done the paint job yet.


Looks brand new with the touched up bumper and new paint job

Interesting Signboards

2 interesting signboards spotted over the weekend.


Pharmacy for Male Chauvinish Pigs (MCP)?


Auto Bavaria (BMW)Sponsored Restroom?

Atrocious movie subtitles

Have been sick for a few days, since my last post on Monday to be exact. Have not been able to write anything lately, until now that is. The flu has been killing me. Despite the condition, I decided to go watch Bad Boys II: Good Cops on Tuesday. Just didn't like the idea of staying at home and doing nothing on Tuesday. The cinema was not that full, so you cannot accuse me of spreading my flu virus to a cinema full of people. The movie was quite entertaining, lots of action though there was very little storyline. But what can you expect from a Jerry Bruckheimer movie?

During the length of the movie, there was one scene stealing moment which has been unforgettable till today, at least for me and my friends. During one of the action scenes, after Martin Lawrence takes some ecstasy pills, Will Smith turns to Martin Lawrence and asks him:

W: Let me look at your pupils (pupils here referring to the eyes)

Guess what the Malay subtitles said: "Biar saya tengok murid anda" -> which means student in malay

By this time, I was laughing hysterically. I was like distracted for 5 minutes of the movie because of the silly subtitle. You must be wondering why was I looking at the subtitles in the first place. Well, to tell you the truth, I normally read the subtitles while watching movies, just for the kick of it. In this case, I only noticed it after a friend of mine pointed it out to me. How can the translators just translate the English words without even trying to make at least a little sense. I was dumbfounded and lost for words. Nevertheless, this has been going on for some time now, ever since I started going to cinemas during my primary school which was way back in the late 80s. I still remember going to watch the James Bond movie, "The Living Daylights" and there were some ridiculous Malay subtitles accompanying that movie. Its been almost 14 years since then, and there has still been no change. Isn't that amazing.

Leaving the cinema, I was still laughing at the hilarious translation of the eye pupil to a "murid". Reaching home, I was just too sick and decided to stay at home to rest for 1 or 2 days. I slept quite a lot while recovering from the bout of flu. After sleeping so much, I decided to spend a few hours to watch some old VCDs. Yes, yes, those that were bought way way before the recent raids, not recent ones, I don't dare buy recent ones. I purposely chose those VCDs that were low quality cinema recording, so that you can read the Malay substitles being projected on to the screen while the movie is being played. I wanted to see if there were any ridiculous subtitles like what I saw in the cinema the day before. True enough, I saw some humourous ones which I have listed down for your reading pleasure. The script has been taken from many movies.

E = English, MT = Malay Translation

1. E: Asta La Vista Baby
MT: Selamat Tinggal Bayi.

2. E: Do I look like I have a sense of humour?
MT: Adakah wajahku tunjukkan rasa lucu?

3. E: Joystick
MT: Batang gembira

4. E: Holy Shit!!
MT: Tahi Suci!!

5. E: Central Security Agency
MT: Agensi Sekuriti Tengah

6. E: I didn't mean to interrupt
MT: Aku ganggu tak sengaja

7. E: Rest & Recreation
MT: Beristirehat & jumpa doktor -> Does this make sense?? My god!!

8. E: Except where his freaking lab is.
MT: Kecuali Labis yang sangat dengar itu

9. E: There are hardly any words to say.
MT: Nyaris tak ada kayu untuk dikata.

10.E: Good night.
MT: Selamat Jalan -> Isn't it suppose to be "Selamat Malam"?

11.E: Why don't you kiss my ass?
MT: Kamu hidulah kentutku.

12. E: Son of a bitch
MT: Anjing

13. E: Look what the cat dragged in
MT: Tengoklah perempuan cantik kita

14. E: The cleaners? You?
MT: Kaulah pencuci.

15. E: Good that you can join us.
MT: Alangkah bagus kamu dapat masuk campur kita.

Are you amazed? Well, I am.

When are you getting married?

Arghhhh.... hearing those dreaded 5 words always gets me so worked up for no reason. I have been getting those words from family and friends very often lately, more in the form of a warning rather than a simple polite question. The mere mention of those words just drives me up the wall. I know, I know, time is catching up with me because of my age. Nevertheless, after being single for so long, I have practically given up hope of finding the right woman for my life, hence the reason for not even thinking about getting married any time soon. Its not to say that I have given up thinking about woman entirely, no, no, don't get my wrong, I AM NOT GAY. Its just like what a close friend told me before, "The time is not right for you yet, if the time is right, you will meet the woman of your dreams." I have always believed in that saying.

As for now, I am contented with what I have in my life, great family, great friends, good job, good car and most important of all, good health! Nevertheless, the society that we live in today, though how ever modern we can say we are, just cannot accept the fact that a guy above 28 years of age can still be single and living life without a soulmate, especially for an Indian guy. Whenever anybody asks me that question, my initial reactions were, "Why? Is there anything wrong with me now, especially since I am still single?" After a while, I was just lost for words. I have got that question thrown into my face so many times, that it just gets harder and harder to answer everytime. In reality, its not a hard question to answer, nevertheless, I just don't know how to answer it in such a way that people will not ask me again. We talk about constructive confrontation, in this case, its constructive question answering. Answering someone's question, in a way not to piss the other person off. I really have to use this technique the next time someone asks me that question.

Nevertheless, I am not saying that people are entirely wrong for asking this question. Its purely out of care and love for me, as a friend or relative, that they ask me this question. They are worried about me because I might be lonely in life with no companion. That is somehow true at times. Of course, I have contemplated about getting a girlfriend a thousand times before, but its just not been happening. Something seems to keep me away from being successful with women, and I have solely accepted that as a fact of my life. You might say that I should not give up so easily, but whats the point of fighting over the path of fate. I really believe in fate, whole heartedly. I still have a strong feeling that I will meet her sometime in my life, but just not yet. And when I do, she will be the best thing that ever happened in my life. Till then, I plan to enjoy my single life, every minute of it, doing the things that I love, for doing the things that you love in life is the best medicine in making you a better person.