Updates Updates!

Haven’t posted the last couple of days but not from lack of activity!

 

When last we met, I was going to go watch Indy. Unfortunately this didn’t happen coz while I was at my gal’s, she got a call to the hospital so our evening trip was to Serdang instead. I ended up waiting one and a half hours for her in the car, which sounds like a sad way to the spend the evening, except the following happened:

 

Got a call from Loco wondering if I was interested in participating in an Indiana Jones Treasure Hunt during the weekend. Apparently they needed replacements and wouldn’t have to pay anything for registration. Very tempting, init? Needless to say, I was in!

 

Saturday morning, I picked up Loco from Kelana Crimson (a trifle early than he expected :p), made our way to Capital Square and promptly got lost trying to find it, both of us not knowing it existed. Apparently our 3^rd member Tech knew where it was, so a couple of phone calls later we were soon in front of the TGV and were treated to quite possibly the best breakfast I’ve ever had in a Treasure Hunt.  Hot curry with roti canai, curry puffs, and popiah , washed down with teh tarik/coffee, it was clearly a pleasant surprise, considering the last Hunt I attended (which was by the nonsense organisers from HELP) had them distributing to each team a bag of Koko Krunch cereal, a carton of milk, and four polysterine bowls! Wasn’t so much the food but the distribution that left much to be desired.

 

The treasure hunt got off to an auspicious start when the organisers accidentally revealed that the last stop would be at Sunway. What happened was we got our gift bags, which contained a nifty Indy hat, a token which we needed throughout the comp, Starbucks vouchers, a pair of cool slippers and not one, but TWO t-shirts. Tech wanted to change the sizes for his as he clearly couldn’t wear L. Me and Loco wanted to change ours too and after searching for awhile, one of the organisers told us that they’ll give us our replacements when we get to Sunway. Ooookay… We also decided that we’d use my car…

 

Summary of locations:

 

Capital Square – KLCC – Mines Wonderland – half of Cheras – Cheras Selatan – Kepong – 1 Utama – Sunway Pyramid.

 

Capital Square – ran to Starbucks downstairs got a clue, then err, took the lift back up to TGV. Yes, the lift. We didn’t seem to be in too much of a rush. Got a token, then rushed to the car. As we were running, my teammate reminded me to paste the car sticker, which I took from my bag and stuck on the car’s hood. I then wasted a few minutes getting lost looking for the exit to the car park.

 

KLCC – On the way, I asked Tech to get me my number from my bag to stick on my tee and imagine the laughter that ensued when he pulled out the huge sticker meant for the car! Clearly the small one I was supposed to wear was stuck on my car!

 

We arrived and I parked near the bus area in front of a bus behind a taxi. Both my teammates went off while I stayed with the car, forever hoping no security guard would notice and shoo me off. I decided to refix the stickers but for the life of me I  couldn’t find where my team put my sticker! Never mind, I’ll just remove the one on my hood first. So I got out, tore it off very shoddily and realised in horror that my car was moving backwards. Handbrake!!! Managed to get to it just in time, thus ensuing the race wouldn’t be the shortest one I ever attended.

 

Next entry: The horrors of Cheras

Contest Fever!

Nizam has managed to reignite my desire to win more competitions... the current one being a Trip for Two to go to EURO 2008 to watch a semifinals match !

Next week is going to be a very strenous week. I'm gonna have to borrow someone's Walkman, or maybe a small radio in order for me to catch FlyFM/HotFM's cue to call. This prize also comes with RM6,000 cash so there's pocket money too mmm hmm...

Right now my free time is spent brushing up my knowledge of EUROs... later on I'll be listening to Nizam battle it out on Fly. Hopefully next week it'll be me.. :)

This evening, I'll be at GSC MidValley to watch the final instalment of Indiana Jones with my gal. The last time we went to the movies was for Iron Man, hopefully tonight will be just as entertaining!

So much for THAT quandary

Managed to get to the Sunway mamak for the 2^nd innings of Mumbai vs Punjab only to discover that they weren’t showing the first match. Apparently they were only going to tune in to the Cricket for the second match which was later in the evening, supposedly to ensure there were enough tables for the regulars as opposed to the cricket mob that sits for hours to watch the match, ordering at most a roti canai together with their drink and never appear again until the next major cricket tournament. I was a bit peeved off at first but on hindsight I can understand. From my World Cup experience back in 2006, the cricket mob (mostly from the subcontinent) can be quite scary, especially when a match isn’t going their way. It doesn’t sound a lot different than football, but when you’re an outsider to a sport maybe 70% of the country don’t really understand, it becomes a different story.

To add to the annoyance, it took us ages to get a waiter to attend to us.  Bryan eventually walked to them instead and gave them a tongue lashing. Then the dish I wanted from the menu wasn’t available. Reaaally frustrating. Needless to say we didn’t stay very long. Football it is then!

It’s highly likely I’ll be back though, simply coz it’s the only place I know atm that subscribes to the Cricket. Beggars can’t be choosers!

Went to Bryan’s place and after cleaning up, I went to sleep really fast. Need to make sure I get enough sleep, or work would be a hazy experience the next day.

Bryan accidentally woke me up before my alarm went off though, turns out he and his housemates hadn’t slept at all. Not that I cared, as long as I got some zzzs. Off to Mydin’s the four of us went.

Mydin isn’t actually a bad place to watch football, the only problem is the huge screen can be a bit too bright, clearly designed to be watched during the day.

Final score : 1-1 (Man U win 6-5 on penalties)

Truth be told, I’m glad I woke up for it, despite me not being on neither side. A goal after 20+ minutes made for an exciting match to watch. Not interested in rivalling the mass reviews out there of the match, but in short it had everything a neutral wanted in a match: Goals, Yellow cards, squaring ups, a red card, extra time, and a thrilling penalty shootout and broken records made it an intense drama, although I was a bit annoyed the match went to extra time and penalties, which meant less sleep.

Finally we returned, and a productive attempt at raising coins for parking money ensued, before we all retired to bed. :)

I’ll try for the Cricket again tonight!

Cricket or football? Or...

Cricket or football… Cricket or football… Cricket or football? Such is the dilemma I face today. Arguably both of them are at different times so it shouldn’t be a problem, but I really can’t spend a possible 6 hours plus in front of the TV on a weekday can I?

 

Two cricket matches, one at 6pm, one at 10pm. The footie’s at 2:45am. With the cricket, the current matches on are the cricket equivalents of a football league run-in. Football is the Champions League Finals. I haven’t watched cricket in ages. The football is a Grand Final. The Cricket’s early. The football is only 2 hours. Cricket’s everyday till June. I might doze at work if I have to watch something til 5. Choices choices… And isn’t it American Idol finals later in the evening ? I wasn’t following it much until the weekend, where they ended up running an American Idol season marathon, I pretty much managed to watch a lot of it.

 

It’s been a very hectic morning today so it’s a bit of relief to be able to squeeze some blog time in. A getaway device that I’m delighted to re-activate.

 

Screw it, maybe I’ll just ignore all of it and get myself a good night’s sleep!

P.S: Trying out this tag thing, seeing if it's any good to maintain.

Cricket Fetish

I’ve been following a lot of cricket lately. I appreciate the way that the Indian Premier League has provided me with an exciting way back into Cricket, a way where I don’t get labelled a glory-seeker for supporting the all-conquering Australians. It’s a lot like the English Premier League, except that it only goes on for about a month and a half. I tell ya, if I’d known before it started that I could subscribe to it on my satellite tv provider, I would’ve purchased it instantly. Now with less than a half month to go, I’d rather not. Next year then, provided everything else works out, God willing.

 

It’s nice to be able to write like this again, what I want, how I want, although I admit the circumstances that drove me to seek refuge here were not the best. If I can settle into the rhythm, I think I might actually achieve something here. I have a theory that my lack of progress in my career may have something to do with me spending too much time on non-productive activities, non-productive meaning stuff that doesn’t actually generate or develop anything income-wise. This may be true, but blog-writing is definitely not one of them.

 

Anyways, back to the Cricket. I haven’t actually decided on supporting any particular team right now, although I have an affection for Deccan due to Gillie being there. Deccan unfortunately, languish near the bottom of the table, a situation which looks unlikely to change for now, half the teams themselves are still trying to find their footing. What’s worse is that their Captain, Laxman, appears to be unable to adapt to Twenty20 Cricket. At the top of the table are the Rajasthan Royals, and surprise surprise, they’re the only team captained by an Australian (surprise, surprise) and it’s the legendary Shane Warne. What’s even more impressive is the fact that they were the cheapest team to assemble, costing $67mil, as compared to the team at the bottom the Bangalore Royal Challengers, which cost $111.6 mil to recruit. Credit goes to the selectors as well, as most of Rajasthan’s imported players did not have any international commitments halfway into the campaign.

 

It’s about twelve days left for the tournament, during that time I intend to head over to a Sunway mamak where I can get my fix, probably not daily, but I’ll try. Need to check the timing though, do not want to spend more time and money than necessary. At least I’ll be able to cheer my team on this time. I remember watching the Cricket World Cup back in ’06, where I was forced to root for Australia in silence, to ensure that the supporters of Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan didn’t decide to go Street Fighter on my sorry figure.

 

Incidentally, there’s also an Asian Intervarsity Cricket Tourney at UKM between the 20^th-25th, so I’ll want to try to squeeze some time for that too J

I don't evolve...

    That's my problem. But honestly, is it wrong to want to stay the way I am?

Of course it is. Change is inevitable. The key is to adapt. After all, at the end of the day, everyone should improve themselves regularly. The learning process never ends, so they say...

Will I? Can I?

For the person I love, I will..

Hmm...

    I miss writing. I really do. At first I thought I had fallen out of it, as evidenced by this blog and my blog at blogspot.

But truth is, I need a place to let go. And it seems to me that this is the only kind of place where I seem to be comfortable doing so.Not many people know about this spot, it's been inactive anyway,  and I'm not sure I want to make it public just yet either.

I've got this huge bundle of stress which has been steadily accumulating, and I'm beginning to worry that it's reaching boiling point.

My weakness is simply that I tend to hide a lot, keeping stuff to myself, appearing to look happy or contented most of the time. But there's only so much one can absorb.

The last time I went around with a gloomy face for a lengthy period of time, I bloody well got scolded by everyone around me. They were so unused to seeing me in such a state, they pressured me into not looking like that. And by some unconscious need to fulfill their desires, putting my own feelings backstage, I succumbed to the pressure and returned to my happy mode. Despite not really being happy...