Photobucket issues...

I'm not currently happy with the service Photobucket is providing. Previously I could resize my pics to whatever % I want. Now, they pretty much restrict you to a few options, ie. web page size, thumbnail, avatar, which sucks. I'm off to greener pastures...

Suggestions appreciated as to the best photo hosting site! Thanks heaps :D

AAA: Day 3 pt 2: More sight-seeing

Firstly, apologies for dragging out my London trip blogging! Football does seem to take a fair bit of it lately...

Alright, back to the housewarming. About 4+ UFS and BHC decided to leave, and offered to bring me to a couple of places. Trafalgar Square was one of them (20 pounds rent ha ha). There were actually tons of tourists here, both foreign AND local, so it was quite surprising. Supposedly there was gonna be some show that night or the next, as they were erecting a performance stage in front of the museum . At least I didn't get pooed on by the birdies :D


With UFS, at Trafalgar Square

The Museum of course, was something else. I'm a bit of an anomaly here. I'm the sort of person who does appreciate good art and good scenery. The problem is my colour condition doesn't allow my to properly appreciate them as other people do... Still, I did enjoy the art gallery, which unfortunately closed at 6pm (so I had about 20 minutes max)

Dinner was quite tasty, although the amount of salted fish they piled on my rice was overload. Yes, I had a Malaysian meal!

After a short visit to the MP building, i.e. the other side of Thames River from yesterday, I finally parted company with a promise to attend their wedding ceremony come Nov.


UFS's hubby, BHC

Here's the annoying bit. According to UFS, everytime they renew their postpaid phone contract, the company gives them a new phone. Therefore, she and BHC both have a number of good, unused phones at home. Unfortunately, I only found out AFTER I had met them, as I was looking to get another phone ! (I had dropped my phone one time too many!)

I got back to the hotel with no worries, turns out that Hafidz had not had dinner yet. So off I went, for some spicy fried chicken run by a local shop. Turned out to be excellent (damn it, I should have finished this before puasa, all this talk about food is killing me!)

After a few diversions, we headed back (needed to wake up early to catch a train to Wolverhampton for the V Fest)

Next: V FEST!!!

More than meets the eye...

Sound familiar?

TRANSFORMERS THE MOVIE
http://www.transformersmovie.com/

A live-action movie! Still, not much on the site though, but note it's a Michael Bay film ... so at least it's not a low-budge flick...

7.4.7

That's LESS than a year away...

Added onto my must-watch list alongside Spiderman 3.

Is Thundercats impossible?

Stupid fairy...

Apparently my blog has been offline since sometime on Friday due to publishing errors. Just as well, if anyone had read and followed my advice on Pick of the Week they were pretty much screwed by the stupid fairy. I always underestimate Chelsea's ability to play beneath their level. Stupid millionaires...

I'm done screwing with my team day in day out, to no positive effect. I'm sticking with my current selected team, bar injuries of course...

On the plus side, watching Titus Bramble was hilarious!!

Tip of the Week

For a difference, instead of posting a full squad, I'll just highlight one player who I think will do brilliantly this week.

This week it's:

Arjen Robben

Never thought I'd be endorsing this light-weight fairy, but with Ballack out (Cole's still out), Mr Softie looks set to start. And he'll do everything he can in his power to prove he should start every game. Fully rested, at 10+ against an injury-ravaged Fulham that also lost in the Carling Cup midweek, he should run the defense ragged, and even fire off one or two goals.

The Liverpool-Newcastle game...

Firstly, good to see Kuyt get off the mark.
Secondly, more nonsense from Alonso!

Too many instances where no one was exploiting the available space on the flanks. With Gerrard and Garcia continuously drifting inside, it was too narrow for Liverpool. That's probably why Kuyt managed to score actually, because Newcastle ended up leaving space on the left. Finnan suddenly arriving was like a surprise to them... Of course, the killer Alonso pass did help.

Our defense still ain't the best. whether it's Agger and Carragher misunderstandings, or Aurelio being more of an attacking defender... Reina still fumbled in the match, if you noticed.

We still have a lot to do, but gaining back confidence helps. A lot. Here's to the 1st CS of our EPL season..!

Day 3 pt 1: Han Solo

Yeap, it's travel alone day! I had arranged to meet Ung Fang Sing (my sis) and her hubby, both ex-KPMG colleagues of mine who were working in London. Hafidz wanted to go off to look at designs (and a certain Stamford Bridge), so I went off solo.

Oh, btw, sore lack of pics for the day coz Hafidz had the camera. Didn't stop me at all though...

I bought a daily tube ticket coz I was only meeting UFS at one. So where did I go?

King's Cross Station, Liverpool Station, The Angel Islington, Euston Road, Northumberland Avenue, Mayfair... sound familiar??? Yes, it's the mini-Monopoly tour! Unfortunately, it was mini coz I simply did not have time to go to every stop on the Monopoly board. Didn't really care though coz I went to my favourite location of all time, The Angel Islngton. Had some fish and chips (magnificent), enjoyed lunch in the company of a random British couple Mark and Shevana (I think that's how it's spelled) found out that The Angel was originally an inn.

Oh, I also made it to Madame Tussaud's, although all I did was stare at the incredibly long queue of people trying to get in. Nearby, there was also the Sherlock Holmes Museum (yes, on Baker Street) which is, in a word, fascinating.

My rendezvous was at Canary Wharf, which was in Zone Two. Of course, once I met them, the 1st thing UFS commented was on how fat I was. We ended up going to a housewarming which was hosted by three more of my ex-KPMG colleagues! Two more arrived later, making me question my wisdom in leaving KPMG so soon..

While I was there, I had the opportunity to test my V DVDs. Suffice to say, they were in excellent condition and we were all soon reminiscing about this 80s series!

cont...

YFF dilemma...

It's no secret that I'm not doing too well right now in YFF. I think I've been taking too many risks, so I'm gonna tone it down this week.

Having said that, this week's a Liverpool-Newcastle double week, and I've always been crap at double weeks.

My team as of today:

Anelka, Saha, Tevez, Gerrard, Young, Petrov, Ronaldo, Chimbonda, Shorey, Aurelio, Reina.

Yeah, mostly solid YFF performers in there. The exceptions are Anelka, Tevez, Gerrard and Reina.

I'm hoping this week's Anelka's breakout week against a dodgy Middlesborough defense. Tevez too, against a dodgy Newcastle defense.

The main drivers here are Gerrard and Reina. This is for pure Liverpool backing, and I want them to win both games. If they win, I'll profit with them, if they lose, I'll go down with them.

Previously I had Fabregas and Barry in there, but then, Arsenal are possibly without RvP and Henry, which to me turns the tide a lot. So much so, that I ended up buying C. Ronaldo, whom with Giggs out, should do most of the free kick/corner duties... As for Barry, apparently last week he slotted in at left-back. For a generally attacking winger, this sucks.

Still have one unit left though... hmm...

The rest of Day 2 in pictures!

Where do I start? oh yes... We left Bayswater by tube, went to Westminster. Tube's just like the LRT in KL, except the characters are more colourful. Ronnie was generous enough to get us daily tickets (wink wink, thanks dude!)

First up: At the Thames riverside, we saw a lot of kids enjoying this, so me and Hawa joined in the fun.

At the time, I didn't actually expect this pic to be taken, but it does illustrate how it works. Here's the real pic:


Here's a cool display on the riverside:

Supposedly you can link your phone to the music box and it'll play the tunes from under your arse. Don't think our phones were compatible though...

Street performers were everywhere, and it was neat to see how some of them put a lot of effort in their respective acts. Although admittedly, there were a few who didn't do much at all, like this dude:



There were quite a few of these guys actually.

One of the street performers decided not to even show up, just left his hat and suit:

Lazy bastards.

Photo ops with sweet Hawa:

One of the most well-known views of the London Thames with Big Ben.

Lepak time (actually our feet hurt. Well, everyone except Hawa):

The contraption you see on the top left is the London Eye, a recent addition to the city attractions. Here's a long-distance view:


It's similar to a Ferris Wheel except one capsule can fit at least 15 people. Apparently you can rent one to have your own mini-private party!
Anyways, from Westminster it was a short tubetrip to Leicester Square (yes, it's a sucky uncommon ha ha).

Was around 3+ by this time and the rain battered down ridiculously, so we had a late lunch/early dinner, depending who you talk to. Our meal was at this Italian restaurant, and I wolfed down a large portion of spaghetti bolognaise, which incidentally tasted great! After that, we split up to do some shopping.

Here's a pic of the area:

On the right is Leicester Square. On the left is a Virgin Megastore and this is where I went.
About 1 hour and 40 pounds later, I came out with this:



A bit of enlightenment: Me and a coupla friends have been hunting these two DVDs in Malaysia for AGES to no success. I made it a point to purchase it the moment I had an opportunity. Wiped out almost half my spending money, but I don't really give a toss...

It was late evening, and we were fairly exhausted, so back to the hotel we went (took a cab this time!). It was also farewell to Tracy, who was leaving the next day on MAS. I personally thought she was a sweet gal, and good company too!

Next: AAA, Day 3, Each to his own!

AAA, day 2 pt 2: The Art of Vacuum Cleaners

Apologies for being late, but uploading pics has been a problem recently...

So, what's so special about Bayswater again??

Apparently Hafidz wanted to check out this spanking new shopping mall his friend told him about. Apparently there’re some funky designs involved. Apparently he’s on a working holiday… (Hafidz is one of those product design people).

Being the 1st day of sight-seeing and what appeared to be nice weather, instead of taking the tube (it's about 3 stops away), we walked instead.

Of course, London being London, it began raining shortly after... I can't remember who came up with the idea, but someone suggested Ronnie purchase umbrellas for us... (very sneaky, in light of the fact that he was probably trying to impress Tracy). Magically indeed, umbrellas appeared!! 5 people, 4 umbrellas bought (yes short by one so that Ronnie has an excuse to snuggle...) Incidentally, those umbrellas turned out to be our MVP = Most Valuable Possession. It was, rain-no rain-rain-no rain-rain-no rain type-weather.

We went through Kensington Park, which kinda brought back nostalgic memories of Melbourne. (Fyi, Melbourne was called a 'garden state' for obvious reasons). Got to know some friendly birdies with aquatic aversions at the lake. Interesting to note that no matter how friendly they are with humans, amongst themselves it can be a totally different story when competing for the crumbs thrown by the aforementioned humans. One pigeon was literally jabbing a duck with its beak to make it drop its crumb!


Take note,the swan in the background is on ramming speed on the unsuspecting daft ducks...


me, Hawa and Hafidz attempting to conceal a growing mass bird invasion...

A couple of wrong turns later, we finally made it to the Bayswater area, but no new, spanking shopping mall. We asked quite a number of people actually, and no one had a clue! Kena con... there isn't any as far as the Bayswater residents were concerned.

continued... in pictures!

YFF Wk 4: Taking measured risks

Right is Saturday morning, and STILL no player update.

Here's my latest squad (Yeah, changed a fair bit)

Bent, Saha, Moore, Fabregas, Ballack, Bullard, Barton, Karkouri, Shorey, Scharner, Jussi

My priorities here were simple: Everyone needs to be a starter. As such, I shied away from Liverpool players (rotational risk). There's some doubtful selections, e.g. half of my squad are away... 2 Charlton players against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge .... but I think I need to take these risks to progress... but trust me, there's method behind my madness!

AAA, Day 2, pt 1: Chocolates are cheaper than water here!!!

When it comes to hotels, I'm big on complimentary breakfasts.

I always check what time they're on, and no matter how late I sleep, I always wake up for those. Always.

It's a fucking event on its own!

Anyways, I wake up far too early, 4ish, cursing as I do so. Obviously my body clock hasn't adjusted yet. I use the Force to fall back asleep, then wake up at 6. Damn it, still 1 1/2 hour more. Unfortunately the Force doesn't like being misused for such trivial matters, and thus, I am unable to sleep any further. Curses to the power of 16.

Turn on the TV instead. If you're a UK resident, then the morning shows are fine, coz you prob only catch a bit before heading of to do whatever you normally do. If you're a tourist, the morning shows can be darn annoying. After every half hour, they pretty much rehash everything from the previous half hour, albeit with updates. Apparently for 3 Hrs. I almost throw my last piece of Yorke at the damn box after the 3rd iteration. Fortunately, I put the throwing on the stack, and eat the choc in response. Everything resolves, choc is eaten, throwing fizzles, and damn box survives.

My cousin wakes around 7 and we get ready. At 7:30am I call our fellow travellers (yes, I CAN be anal about these things). Ronnie picks up, and I'm a bit surprised (thought he got lucky). Hawa in the background proceeds to yell, "He's not a virgin anymore!!!" My response, "Wasn't this news at least TEN years ago???" (He's 30, btw). Anyways, I ask if they wanna get breakfast. Ronnie says, "give us five minutes". Or ten. Can't remember but it felt like an eternity.

Complimentary breakfast turned out to be limited to toast and cereal, with a choice of juices and hot drinks. A complete English breakfast would cost extra, 7 pound 50 to be precise. Hey, if our sponsor isn't paying for it, I sure as hell ain't. Having said that, the toast tasted fantastic. We all had a lot, even though I had finished last night's Kebab a half hour ago!

Me and Hafiz went off to find a Cybercafe. Took us twenty minutes to find one open, and I stopped for a touristy pic with a double decker (hey, it's England). Updated my football team (yes, priorities).



Once back at the hotel, Ronnie announced that Tracy was coming along with us, and we'd detour to her hotel. Unsurprisingly Ronnie get us lost for awhile before finding it. (Apparently he took a cab the prior night). Tracy turned out to be quite a friendly person, and rather attractive too.

So we set off to Bayswater...

Shit, I haven't even made it past the morning yet, my entries are getting longer...

Tbc...

AAA, Part 3: The flight + 1st day

I forgot to mention in my previous post about the airflight baggage regulations. I pretty much stuffed everything into my main luggage coz I couldn't be bothered with any hand luggage issues. Ronnie however, decided to take his bag in as hand luggage. As a result, at the check-in, he had to reveal its entire contents to the counter-girl. Yeap, he was a bit embarassed, but hey, no pain no gain!

Anyway, 13hrs sitting on a flight is no joke, but fortunately there was a slew of movies for us to watch, especially good for me as I don’t sleep very well on planes. There was one questionable selection though, Hawa pointed out to me, as they were showing The Terminal as well. If you’ve watched that before, you’d know it’s not something you’d want to watch on an airplane to LONDON at this point in time! I did feel bad for Hawa though, her lengthy frame just did not fit the seats, making it a bit hard for her to get comfortable.

The flight wasn't very comfortable either, with quite a bit of turbulence. Hawa, who wasn't happy with the pilots, got their names down so that she'd know if she was flying with them again. Ronnie, on the other hand, was busy picking up one of the stewardesses, apparently doing well! The meals, although nothing special, were okay though.

We arrived safely early evening. We had the typical "which line do we go to?" immigration problem. Then Hafiz made an infamous comment, "Kita ni kat Heathrow ke Hydarabad???" (Are we in Heathrow or Hydrarabad?) We asked him why, and he said, take a look at the immigration counters. It appeared that all, yes ALL, the personnel manning the counters appeared to be of Indian descent!!!

Anyway, we made our way past the immigration without much problems, although she did ask us extensively about what we were doing here. We found our contact, and headed off to the parking lot for our taxivan. The weather felt like Genting!

Our hotel was the Kensington International, where the rooms were small, but golly gosh cozy. I did a bit of early exploring of the environs with Hafiz, and typically I ended up with chocolates (ha ha!) + Walker's Crisps. I bought a choc bar called YORKE, which had the tagline "NOT FOR GIRLS". I assume it was due to the heavy choc content, hey if I, of all people, can't finish a choc bar, I'd say it's an achievement for them choc-makers...

Then it was a bed flop, tv switch as we waited for dinner. Soon Hawa gave us a ring, and surprisingly she was alone. Turns out Ronnie went off with his stewardess (!)(Tracy, btw) and just passed her dough for dinner. We ended up exploring some more, looked for stuff in TESCO about 15 mins walk away, (where we were flummoxed trying to comprehend the pre-paid phone system), and finally settled on a Take-Away Kebab shop close to our hotel. The supposedly ‘small’ Doner Kebab turned out to be massive, and I ended up keeping half for next morning! I watched a bit of TV (nothing INTERESTING!!!) before retiring to bed.

To be continued...

Azmin's Awesome Adventure Pt 2

As I was part of the committee for my Company’s Staff Day that weekend, I had no time to actually think a lot about what I had won. The Staff Day itself had lots of interesting occurrences keeping my mind occupied.
The reality hit me on Monday, when I was back at work and Hawa from Fly FM called me up asking for names, ICs and passports. I panicked, because I actually thought the trip was in October! Turns out it was in two weeks time, i.e. August 17th-21st, and for me, Monday was a scramble to find a person to go with me who had a valid passport. I managed to narrow it down to Michelle, Ben and my cousin Ayu. In the latter half of the day I added my other cousin Hafiz (my mum thought it'd be a nice last bachelor trip), and in the end, he became my fellow traveler.
During the period that passed, I was informed by Hawa that we would receive our flight tickets on the day of departure itself. Typically, some of my family actually had misgivings that I had won, as there seemed to be NO real evidence around! (they never did catch any of those announcements on Fly FM about me winning...) As a result, the drive to the airport that Thursday morning had an air of doubt throughout.
Fortunately, all doubts were dispelled as we met Hawa and the Universal rep, Ronnie Gan at the airport, and received our tickets! It was indeed a reality! After saying goodbye to our respective folks, we headed over to Fly FM to chill before our flight. Yeap, the station’s in KLIA, for those who don’t know, hidden in terminal C5. The station's design was awesome though, it certainly made us wish we worked there! We got to see the DJs in action, and FlyGuy and Ben managed to squeeze in an interview with me and Hafiz. Was a bit nervous, but it was fun doing it! Oh, and DJ Nina was pretty darn cute too! We also had an insight into Hawa's work ethic, as she pretty much worked all the way till the final 30 minutes before our flight!!

With Rosyan, DJ Nina and Wan

Azmin the Sound Engineer





READY TO FLY!!!!

To be continued....

I think I've got into a bit of a rut...

... I think I need to reinvent myself. There are lots of things I feel I need to do, but haven't gotten it done. A change in appearance and outlook looks to be on the horizon...

This blog's appearance needs an uplift too...

Let's see what happens this month aighhhhht....

EPL YFF is back!!!

Unfortunately, I'm not.... at least quality-wise...

After 2 weeks, I'm looking like a pale shadow of the guy who finished 2nd place in the WGS league last season. At TT, I'm currently losing horribly in my WC group, (again, unlike last year where I pretty much strolled into the last 16). It's international break now though, which gives me a chance to regroup (currently in 9th position).

Transfer deadline has just passed, and crikey, the YFF world just got more complicated. The striker positions alone have got new choices like TEVEZ, Kuyt and Anelka! With such quality players at such cheap prices, it gets harder and harder to build the best squad. On the other side, I'm glad players like Reyes got kicked out of the EPL. I will never forget his rolling-onto-the-pitch incident....!

Of course, if lotsa players suddenly kop injuries during the internationals, it WOULD make things a lot easier... starting with Shevchenko and Ballack ha ha... okay, that's just me being cruel...

Here's my team as it stands (pre-transfer deadline effects):

Henry, Saha, Shevchenko, Ballack, Bullard, Rosicky, Fabregas, Aurelio, Shorey, Scharner, Jaaskelainen.

Yeah, I managed to squeeze Henry in. Amazing.

Saha currently looks long-term, as is Bullard. Yes, I've dropped last year's policy of having Stevie G a permanent fixture, because there's so much quality in the squad which reduces Steven Gerrard's necessity to be a one-man squad. I'm sticking with my no-Everton policy though, sorry ha ha...

Jaaskelainen at the Reebok against Watford appears to be the best chance of a CS. Scharner's there coz he's a midfielder listed in defence + he tries to score goals (it's a risk, coz he's almost a card magnet).

Yes, I'm expecting Arsenal to thrash Boro. No, Middlesbrough acquiring Woodgate doesn't change things much either. I CAN see myself replacing Shevchenko with either of those 3 strikers i mentioned earlier. Reason being Chelsea won't be THAT great coming off the internationals, so I won't put too much in them.

Finally, Aurelio could get replaced by Ashley Cole ceteris paribus. Yes, I feel sorry for Bridge, but somehow it keeps falling down...

Well, that's it for now. We'll see what happens after the Internationals aiight...