paha

It just occurred to me recently that the Malay word paha is not pronounced in the standard way KL Malay deviates from bahasa baku. Usually only the last syllable is “modified”, but the case of paha, both syllables are “modified”, i.e. it is pronounced “per-her” not “pah-her”.

flickr paralysed

Arghhh! I’ve been trying to upload photos to Flickr for the past few days but have been encountering problems and it seems that I’m not the only one.

durian runtuh

I was rostered for a flight to Shanghai recently which was later cancelled, and I was put on standby instead. I was extremely displeased by this arrangement as I had already bought a ticket to watch Wangi Jadi Saksi, a play directed by U-Wei, on the day I was supposed to return from Shanghai, but now my plans were all up in the air.

Much to my delight, on the day that I was on standby, I was called up to operated a flight to Malé, as I have always dreamt of visiting the Maldives. But that’s not all; one of my best friends was also operating that flight, and she had swapped her rostered flight much earlier to be on this flight. We were just talking over dinner the night before about how wonderful it would be if I were to be called up for her flight, but we both dismissed it as wishful thinking. But I did get called up for her flight! What are the odds of that?

How wonderful it was to get to go to the Maldives with my friend for work! It was also our first flight together.

To top the cake with icing, I did manage to catch the play after all as I arrived back in Singapore on the same day as I would have if I had operated the Shanghai flight.

local food

Food is usually good where it comes from. Thai food is good in Thailand, Indian food is good in India, Japanese food is amazing in Japan, as is Italian food in Italy. Penang food is nothing short of heavenly in Penang. So why then can Chinese food be soooo baaad in China?

no lift landing

In my Singapore residence, my floor has no lift landing. I live in an HDB flat block with ancient lifts that stop on certain floors only. Evidently, designed by some fuckwit. I’m on the second floor (third floor/level/storey in Singapore) and the lifts stop at the ground, fifth, tenth, and fourteenth floors only. So, when I got back from Frankfurt this morning, with a cabin bag and a huge cargo bag, I had to go through quite a bit of trouble just to bring my bags up.

After getting out of the taxi, I wheeled both my bags to the lift lobby and had to carry them up a few steps to the lift landing (another stupendously moronic design). I then went up to the fifth floor, carried them down a few steps from the lift landing to the general floor level, wheeled them to the stairwell which would bring me to my flat, and carried them up a few steps to the stair landing. I then locked my cargo bag to the banister with a bicycle lock and carried my cabin bag three floors down to my flat. After depositing my cabin bag in my flat, I then went to retrieve my cargo bag. Whenever I travel without a cargo bag, I just use the stairs and carry my bags up two floors.

photos blogged

Some of my photos on Flickr were blogged here, here, and here.

my 1st pc

Finally, after months of saving, I’ve purchased a Sony Viao FZ VGN-FZ17G. This is the first PC I’ve bought with my own hard-earned money. Now that I’m connected online at home, I should be able to blog more often….

merdeka! merdeka! merdeka!

Selamat Hari Merdeka everyone! Sorry terlambat….

what’s changed since…

I’m back in KL for the second time in four months. What has changed since? Two friends got engaged (to each other), one of them changed her job, a friend’s going to pursue his Masters, another friend now works for WWF, the Universiti Roundabout no longer exists, and there’s no more flat-rate parking at Mid Valley. Everything else seems pretty much the same….

a week off

I’ll be off for a week from the 29th of June. I’ll definitely be back in KL, but I’m planning to drive down to Singapore with boxes of stuff and driving back up to KL before taking a bus back to Singapore. This leaves me very little time to spend in KL, but that’s the plan for now….

cantonese banned in singapore!

Believe it or not, all non-Mandarin Chinese dialects are banned in cinemas and free TV in Singapore! All Hong Kong films are dubbed into Mandarin, and apparently, this is sometimes done very poorly resulting in lost nuances at best, lost ambient sound at worst! Some Singaporeans actually troop to JB to catch Hong Kong flicks!

first flights

My first training flight was supposed to be to Sydney on the 26th of May, but now it’s been changed to Tokyo on the 25th of May due to reasons I can’t disclose on any blog (not allowed to blog about work-related stuff). I’m scheduled to fly to Auckland on the 30th of May and Nagoya on the 15th of June.

Lot’s of interesting stuff has happened at work. How unfortunate that I can’t blog about them. I’ll tell you personally if I’m in the mood.

cybercafe nearby

Yay! An affordable cybercafe has finally opened near my apartment. Finally, convenient Internet access!