On the Gift from Boss

So he came into the ward that morning, that day after we had lunch outing together, blowing off candles in conjunction of the birthday of the April babies, and someone mentioned it was my birthday...

Boss, "Oh happy birthday! Here's something for you."

Moi, "Why thank you!"

Colleague, "C'mon, seriously?"

Boss, "No seriously! I bumped into the drug rep on the way just now. So I asked for more. Here's one for everyone."

And so, everyone has a new pen that day...

Not taking it to the heart boss! ;-)

On the Tribute to #MH17

In the wake of the recent mishap, Medie wishes to express his deepest condolences to all the family and friends of the victims. It was indeed a tough time, to even accept  that it happened.

Le sis's close friend was apparently returning from Amsterdam with her elder sister and her nephew, and the following morning after the mishap, Le sis was seen crying on a few occasions. I couldn't entirely understand the feeling of losing someone so dear, but she was indeed a very dear friend. She is known to the entire family, and she actually took our family portrait in KLIA1 2 years ago when Le brother was in a hurry to catch a flight. That family portrait now hangs in our living room. It hurts so much to think that a such a bubbly girl would fall victim to this... this... mishap. I don't want to join in the rat race of finger-pointing, innocent lives were lost here.

I wanted so much that justice would be served. But with the tough times ahead, indeed it seemed difficult.

I read some Facebook post when faith is lost. Where is God at this time of trouble? Why these beautiful peoples? Why?

I'm terribly disappointed that there are still people making ignorant remarks. MAS should know better and not fly over war-zones. Korean Air, Asiana and likes avoided Ukrainian airspace since several months ago. And when SIA reassured her passengers they didn't fly over Ukrainian airspace, albeit at quite an insensitive tone, there were people who criticized them for wanting to cover-ass. Like, seriously? F*ckin seriously?

I hurt the feelings of a dear friend when I made a remark that, being in the shoes of having someone lost in such "mishaps", would have not been understood by someone who is not; Little did I know, this dear friend of mine lost someone in the major world event where 2 towers collapsed. I may have lost my sensitivity when I am mourning. And I am terribly sorry for that.

But as of now, all I'm wishing for, is for a peaceful closure. No more war please. No more boycott. No more complains. No more critics. Just f*ckin please, no more.

Then again, I think my plead, though

probably shared by some, would most likely fall on deaf ears. Look at the state of the world today, did I actually had a concussion or something? World peace? Seriously? I must be joking.

So therefore, while there are still family and friends who is struggling to continue living, lets hope that the world continue spinning, and we shall all grow together. #ChinUpMAS.

On What We Did Last September

It was the Malaysia day weekend. Sarawak state government decided to have a river parade in conjunction with the celebration. And I had my leave approved then. Therefore I was home accompanying Le Parents. Le Sis, Le Soulmate and Le Buddy flew in as well. And I decided we should all be a tourist in our own city. Ta-daa... There we were, sitting on that cruise, going down the muddy river... It's quite a good experience so to speak. Pretty much the same as of what I had in Budapest, Bangkok and Saigon. Le Parents were of course, beaming all the way. I bet they hadn't been on it despite being here all their lives. Then again, Le Dad being Le Dad, he HAD to say he grew up taking small boats to the city. Meh. But still. I heart him.

On the VW

Admittedly, I'm not a fan of cars.

Dad got me a Proton when I was in my 2nd year of university for the ease of traveling around in the city; of which I had fully utilized - wearing and tearing the car to all the extend one could ever imagined. And having said that, I was very contented with the car I have. And I have never laid my eyes upon any other cars. So what if they are nicer drive, or sexier looks, they get me to the final destination as how my faithful Proton did anyway.

So buddy and I were chatting while I was driving. She said German pronounced V as W and vice versa.

So it downed to us... Instead of (V)olks(W)agen like how I've grown up reading, it was actually (W)olks(V)agen!

Then again. Frivolous people do nonsensical talks. Good to know huh? :D

On the Doraemon Festa!

I actually have no idea what's the buzz about this cartoon character. I mean, I grew up watching the cartoon, but well... I gotta say these days, with work and all, I am pretty detached. But as the "other" buddy is a huge fan of this blue robot, we decided to pay the expo some visit. Therefore, one fine weekend, we got our butts amidst the rows of those blue robots.

My personal impression?

Yeah... it's pretty fun I guess... I just didn't have the passion to read all the description for all the different gadgets.

So...

We arrived at 1130, we left at 1215. LMAO!

But really, kudos for the good effort!

On Getting the Fine

So while I was down south in the island nation, a close buddy actually lent me her car to drive around (or rather having me the driver). So... yea... I had been happily been driving her VW whenever I was in town until one day... Soi-mm-soi leh...

I got fined SGD130 for driving on a bus lane before 7pm!

Or rather, she got fined for having her car driven on a bus lane.

Sigh. Lak bin ah! 

On *NON-HALAL* Food

Sorry lor, but this smells damn great!

Although I didn't sink my teeth into any of them. But I vaguely remember some of my friends bought a whole pack of pork floss though...

On the Antique Shop

So there's this place in Bangkok, sort of like a junk-yard or some sort, collecting antiques from different part of the country, or even the world for all that matters because other than the disc player and the super antique luggages and the cockoo bird clock, we also came across the legendary figurines!

From Starwars!

And Ultraman!

 Some superheroes....

And Wolverine!

To the brothers' dismay though, this junkyard wasn't as classy a museum as I thought it would be. I mean, well, I thought it was a proper place with shelves or something, but I too, was a bit disappointed it turned out to be indeed, a junk-yard. LOL

THe place is called - Banana. LOL

On the Surprise Grapes

Beggars were not uncommon in Bangkok, when you don't want to bump into them. But more often than not, they would not be bothering you. They would just sit quietly at one corner, waiting for kind souls to kneel down and place some money into their empty bowl.

So while we were walking in Chinatown, we walked into this wet market and I came out with one kilogram of seedless grape. It was indeed nice. But I was actually eating along the way like it was a snack or something. Oh wait, it was meant to be snacks. But after about a dozen, I thought it was not as nice as I hoped it to be. The skin was bitter! SO bitter that I couldn't take any more. But it was heavy and I didn't want to carry a bag of grapes walking around in Chinatown, which, wasn't all that light...

And so... I decided to become an angel. *cough-cough* And left the bag next to a poor man sleeping by the roadside. I know it was mean and I was pretending to be kind for the wrong reasons... :( But think about it, wouldn't he be delighted when he woke up to a bag of food just next to him? Out of nowhere, like *poof*, magic...

But while we were walking away from him... I began to realize how stupid I was! That bag of grapes was expensive!

On the Traditional Chinese Hospital

 There was this Chinese Temple in Chinatown of Bangkok, typically the building of a Chinese temple. But the name of the temple was rather special. The main shrine houses a standing KuanYin alright, but the distinctive features was the row of chairs in front of the prayer hall.

It wasn't before long that we found out the temple was also a Chinese Traditional hospital. Completely equipped with consultation room and pharmacy... And even wards! At the back of the temple. Didn't find out how big the hospital was, but it does indeed, looked like at least a 100-beded ward.

Surprisingly, the amount of patients visiting was reasonably a lot. At 10am in the morning, the registration counter was facing quite a long queue! Apparently, it's quite an old hospital, set up since the era when the Chinese from mainland started migrating South-bound...

On Stalkers in Dean&Deluca

So we were actually staying just opposite this high-end grocer Dean&Deluca and only realized about it on our second night there. Having heard all the good reviews about the coffee and dessert, we didn't waste time paying a visit right away.

The array of dessert were fantastic. And the service provided by the waiter was even better. He practically introduced every single cakes available and said the rainbow cake was popular amongst those food-photographers while their gem would have been... I can't remember. LOL. But I know I had a taste of the cheese cake and chocolate cake, while the Hermes had some cappucino cake shapped in a cup.

Well, having been a nothing-better-to-do traveller on the loose, anything peculiar at all will not get away from my lense. And the fact that there's 2 good looking men sitting across each other in the shop, one in blazer and shorts while the other in shirt and jeans... Hmmm... Sweet!

On the Smelly Beef Noodle

One late evening, +Ant+'s local friend brought us to this place by the Klong, i.e. canal in downtown Bangkok, for the reputable beef noodle. Come to think about it now, I wouldn't have go through all the trouble given a choice. No, it's not because of the beef noodle being smelly (and I had that as a title just for, and it did get your attention no? LOL). Its the trouble of having to elbow my way through the human traffic at the BTS stations and the overhead bridge!

 But of course, there is a whole row of shops selling beef noodle, identified by the color of shirts the workers wear. We only tried one where the waiters and waitresses wore pink, and it was not bad really. Considering how unhygienic a place it was actually located, having no diarrhoea the next day confirmed these Thais really do care about their food hygiene.

We had about 3 bowls each. Of noodles of different dishes. Could barely remember what I ate by now. But having visual recallections of what we had did help somewhat. Then again, I can't remember what this was. Fried pork skin? Or wait, wasn't it beef noodle shop? LOL

 But yes, the 6 of us had these number of bowls for dinner.

And still hungry...

On Dancing Gangnam Style

I'm not a fan, seriously. And it freaking annoyed me to the core when the song was played, even more when people started to jump like that guy in the video. Imagine how humoured I was when I came across people of different nationality thinking along the same line!

I mean, seriously, why would he even become a global phenomena I had no freakin idea. But I guess he must've done something really great in the past.

On International Shopping at Terminal21

 Welcome to Level 2- Istanbul.

I'm sure quite a lot would have been to this unique mall in Bangkok, the one which incorporate the experience of shopping in Rome, Paris, Tokyo, London, Istanbul, San Francisco and Hollywood under one roof. Literally.

The only thing which I find quite real an experience in the mall would probably be the signages which resembled those in the airport, which I presumed, gave the mall its name.

It was probably like a newer version of Sungai Wang in KL, only much more class-ier. With local self-designed clothing stores and what nots, I think this is probably one of the only mall where I would really go to should I want something unique, other than Chatuchak Sunday Market. Heck, in fact, a lot of the brands here probably would have had started in the Sunday Market anyways.

The food court on the top floor was great, but there was a cock-up on the cashless system on our visit. The 'Touch and Go' card machine was all jammed, and the queue on the counter was so long you might as well forget about eating there. Unless of course, the stall owners started to ask the customers to pay by cash. Which was exactly what happened.

But all in all, I suppose if you have the money, and if you're of typical asian size of 175cm with 70kg size, anywhere you shop would be a shopping paradise.

On Lunchies in Terminal21

Bangkok is a nice city. Really. The only thing that annoyed me most would probably finding out there's Wi-Fi connection in the place where I was at strong connectivity, but only to find there's some password requirement for internet access. Ugh.

And somehow this other friend of mine just showed his phone right in front of your face about his latest update on Facebook. -.-"

On the Gossips Behind Running Late

Pertaining to me being late on 2/1/2013, I walked into our pantry later on that day and everybody just jumped in excitement.

Colleague A: OMG MEDIE! Epic!

Colleague B: I know what happened last night!

Colleague C: What what?

Colleague B: He went to this bar drinking and there was this ang mo bartender...

Colleague D: But why would you even go drinking?

Me: It's New Year's day!

Colleague A: Then? Why would the bartender be in the picture?

Me: It's a bar obviously.

Colleague D: Then? You got drunk?

Me: No la... It's just that I woke up this morning at 730am.

Colleague A: OMG? At the bar?

Me: Nooooo... At home...

Colleague A: So what, you brought the bartender home?

Colleague D: Wait wait wait, is the bartender a guy or a girl? That's the ultimate question...

Me: A lady...

Colleague B: SO you went and drink alone and hook up with the ang mo bartender and you ended up turning in late today...

Me: *faint*

Then again, gotta thank these guys for keeping everyone sane...

On Kissing-A-Ten Kissaten

So I was in town, and I asked if the big brother wanted to meet up for a dinner or something. Little did I know he'd think of it as a 'special occasion' and asked quite a number of people. LOL. *happy*

 After dinner in this mata-something place, we headed to IOI for beer. Couldn't decide on which beer house to go to; considering there's a lady in the group who wanted coffee and for an atmosphere that wasn't too noisy... And we ended in Kissaten.

There's minimal choice of beer to choose from. Tiger Heineken Guinness and Paulaner. No price for correctly guessing which I chose. No other German beers though, although Hoegaarden is so commonly available nowadays. But I guess Paulaner was not that bad.

Flipped the menu to see a double chocolate cake picture and we had that on our table the next thing I knew. It was rich in chocolate. Very rich. So much so it felt like a thick pudding or something. LOL.

But what was nice was the chilled salted pork dish. Okay, biased view. I'm a carnivore that's why. But honestly, it was really nice.

Spent like 3 hours chatting and gossiping about the least likely stuffs that night, LOL. And we left when all of us were trying hard to keep our lids open. Or maybe just me. Hah.