Tues 08/09/09 LCCT to Standstead (Air Asia), London Thurs 10/09/09 Gatwick, London to Zurich (Easyjet), Switzerland for Jackie's Wedding Mon 14/09/09 Zurich to Luton (Easyjet), London Wed 16/09/09 Standstead, London to Cork (Ryanair), Ireland; visiting Leslie in Killarney Fri 18/09/09 Cork to Standstead (Ryanair), London Sat 19/09/09 Paddington, London to Tiverton Parkway (First Great Western), Devon; visitig Fiona in Shillingford Sun 20/09/09 Tiverton Parkway, Devon (First Great Western)to Paddington Weds 23/09/09 Standstead to LCCT (Air Asia)
Hotels
London Edward House Hotel Rapperswille Jakob Hotel Killarney Killarney Towers Shillingford Barleycorn House
Other Stats
Number of Pictures taken: 996 (4.2G) Distance Travelled: Lots Most shocking event: Paying 12.5 Swiss Francs for a Big Mac Meal! Here's the proof.
Pictures of the trip may be viewed on my Facebook account; look for cincaluk or Seet Cheng Khim.
So off we went on the dive boat, a luxurious 30 footer (approximately). With a dive preparation area at the back, a dry area at the front, where meals were to be had and a chill out semi- covered area at the top.
Nice I thought, so off we went to the first dive site an hour and a half away. Having rested and lulled into a comfortable sense of well being… I was suddenly brought back into reality during the first dive briefing that the dive was to be a wall dive! But….but….but…it’s my first dive in 2 years! I wanted to shout out. Ah well…. “In for a penny, in for a pond”, as they say.
So with a pounding heart,I took a giant stride into the water. “Oops… I forgot to inflate the BC!” But that was of no consequence, as everyone was already descending, and so was I …. Very quickly indeed. Quickly inflate the BC I thought. “Ergh…. How do you do that? Isn’t there suppose to be a button you press to do that? Like this red one? Yes!!! Press it!!! No not that hard!!” Phrezz…. The BC over-inflates and I start rising…. A little too fast! Damn!!! Got to deflate it now, “How’s that done again???” “Must be the button next to the red one” Phrezz…. Damn too long again! Damn… I’m shooting down too fast again. So down, up, down, up…. until I finally get to some sort of stability. “Phew… that wasn’t so hard!” ( takes a look around….) Now… where is everybody…
“Are they below me?”
“F$%k!! there’s nothing below me!” (starts breathing even harder)
“Where are they!”
“Oh… they’re all above me!!!”
“Hmm… are they supposed to be that high above?”
“Let’s check my air and depth levels”
“Oooh… 36m and 150 psi”
“What was that the Dive Master said at the briefing? Open Water Divers, max depth 20m?”
“Ah well… so I exceed that by a smidge….won’t be the first time”
“More worrying is the air pressure, 50 psi gone just to get to a stable depth! And I’m a heavy breather!!! Ah well, let’s try to remain composed from now on and conserve a little air now”
However about 40 minutes later I discovered that my air supply was down to 50 psi. Bugger!! Time to surface. “Hell…Let’s push this a bit what’s the difference surfacing at 50 psi or 30 psi”
So at 30 psi, I approached the dive master (DM) and indicated to him that I was going up!
So I slowly ascended, but at 6m I did my impression of a cork in a bath, and popped up without so much as a “Cheers”.
“Eerh… what am I supposed to do now?”
“I suppose I’d better follow the group who are 10m below me.”
“Damn…this is the most expensive snorkelling trip I’ve been on”
“But the view’s good”
The view at snorkeling depth ( a fellow snorkeler)
So after 15 minutes of ‘snorkeling’, I had lost track of my group of divers (was following a different group), I checked my air pressure and it was, next to nothing.
"No wonder I'm sucking so hard to suck air in"
I then thought that it was best tofully inflate my BC,but... nothing happened!!
"F%@k! No more air!!! Double F%@k!!!" "Okay... time to use the snorkel"
So I lifted my head up and spotted the 2 boats including one that said ‘Tasik Divers’ in large bold letter on it’s side.
"Oh dear, I forgot to check the name of the dive boat. Anyway, the dive centre was Tasik Dive Centre, so... the safe bet is to head for Tasik Divers"
So there I was slowly making my way to "Tasik Divers" when the "friendly chaps" on the other white boat start waving to me. "Ah.... this is what I love about Indonesia, the people are so friendly" As I approached "Tasik Divers" the chaps on the white boat decided to get even friendlier and got quite close.
"Oh...I wish they wouldn't do that, now I've got to swim around them to get to Tasik Divers and it's quite hard work breathing through a snorkel as I have to suck the air in instead of it being forced in by the pressure from the air-tank."
Finally I got onboard "Tasik Divers" to much commotion as it emerged that the white boat was our dive boat!!! Ooops.... never mind said the boat-man as I made my apologies in halting Bahasa Indonesia, we are from the same company, so no problem.
So after settling down for a while, whilst the right, white boat recovered the other divers, I was then transferred to the white boat by jumping off "Tasik Divers" into the sea for a short swim to the white boat.
But... did the drama end there? No way!!!
After jumping into the water, what did I do??? What came naturally of course... opened my eyes!!! And I'm wearing contacts!!!! "Oh...Triple F*%k" I said as I realised and immediately shut my eyes. I surfaced and opened my eyes to find that the contacts were still there in my eyes.
Phew.... there ended the first dive of the trip to much amusement of my fellow divers.
From the 27th August to the 1st of September 2009, I joined GOD's (Great Ocean Divers) and 15 other GOD buddies on a diving trip to Manado.
Having only dived a handful of times since my certification in 1996, I was a little apprehensive about the dives here, as it would include wall dives, meaning one would dive along the face of a cliff!! Now for someone who doesn't like heights, floating over an area where you can't see the bottom really isn't my idea of fun.
Diving at the sheer Wall of Bunaken
Anyway, packing aside my nervousness and a new underwater camera housing, I climbed on board Air Asia's flight AK432 to Manado (albeit 20 minutes late) and joined in the fun.
The drama began almost as soon as we reached Tasik Ria Resort. We arrived almost at mid-night and began the process of checking in. As the hotel staff were a little overwhelmed with the amount of luggage (lots of dive equipment), I decided ( as I had very little dive stuff) to haul my luggage and myself to the room. BAD idea!!!! The resort was sprawling and there were no signs! So having rapidly lost sight of most people within the first few minutes, I ended up walking around the gardens for half an hour hoping to stumble upon the room or at the very least Reception so that I could get guidance. Thankfully out of the shadows steps a slightly drunk German guest who rather unsteadily pointed out the general direction of the Reception and despite my better judgment, I followed his advice. Thankfully German efficiency won through, and I did find Reception and the receptionist did lead me to my room and I settled in for a good sleep.
I unpacked my toiletries and went to the bathroom to clean up. However I stepped back into the bedroom and it was still warm and stuffy!!! Hell!!! the air-conditioning wasn't working!!!! So I called up reception, who promised to send a maintenance staff to check. Dubious as I was that Maintenance would be on duty at 1 am, I waited and to my surprise, he turned up within 15 minutes. As I suspected, he could not solve the problem as the fault was either a faulty compressor or a compressor which is short of refrigerant, he said he'll check the outdoor unit. After 15 minutes, he still had not returned to fix the problem whence I promptly called Reception, who promised to check on hte matter and promised to get the problem solved in 15 minutes. (Yeah right!) 15 minutes later.... still the blower was blowing hot air, so once again I picked up the phone and called Reception, who tried to sell me the idea that the problem will be fixed within 15 minutes! I promptly told him that that's not going to happen and that insisted that I be placed in another room for the night. After much more hot air.... he finally agreed and came over to the room to lead me to the new room. So I packed up my toiletries and followed him to the new room and promptly fell asleep at about 3am.
The next morning I arose and went for breakfast at the appointed time of 7am Indonesian time (1 hour behind Malaysian time right?) I sat down for breakfast and felt strange as I was the only person there. Sensing something wrong, I promptly went off to the dive centre (which I noticed during my late night wanderings from last night) when I found the rest of the group preping up for the morning's dive. I hurriedly apologised to everyone and completed the necessary preparations (filled out forms, ordered the necessary dive equipment, rushed back to my room to pop in my contacts etc.) The dive centre was sceptical about my dive credentials as I did not bring my dive card along with me and said that I would not be able to dive the second day if I did not show them some proof of certification. So I had to 'phone home and arrange for my certification form to be faxed to the dive centre to be able to continue diving.
This is for the Surveyor with the Quiver who poo pooded that my suggestion of signing Michael Owen way back in early June. Well not only did SAF sign him, but 2 goals from his first 2 matches (albeit against Malaysia) and I'm grinning from ear to ear like the smug bastard that I am. Go number 7!!!
28th June -2nd July Macau 2nd July - 6th July KL Travel Fair 10th July - 12 July Bali Patta Fair 15th - 18th July Singapore to meet my younger sister on her way back to NZ from the UK.
Boy...I'll be whacked.
After Bali, I'll probably be moving into Mum's new flat on a temporary basis.
It was the "Agong's" (Malay Ruler) Birthday yesterday , hence the whole of Malacca town was packed full of tourists; filling up every restaurant, shopping center and car -parking space. As is my usual response to such days, I do my passable impression of a hermit and was thus, "Bored Shit-less."
Which got me thinking.... "What the hell does that phrase mean anyway?"
Well here's my theory, formed from yesterday's experience as I sat on the throne on my umpteenth trip to the loo for the want of something better to do. Bored shit-less eh..? As I tried yet another bowel movement to ease the last of the crap from my colon.....mmm....
Another whizz, bang action big budget action movie best seen on the big screen or from 10" in front of a 40" telly. The plot wasn't great, action scenes pretty standard by modern movies. A little bit like Mad Max meets The Matrix with more then a little Terminator thrown in. Oh! and Christian Bale gets another cool bike in this movie as well.
To "go-starn" in the Malaysian lingo (didn't want to say, Malaysian English as it translates across all the Malaysian languages) means to go backwards or reverse. It is not unusual to hear the instruction directed by back-seat drivers to their unfortunate drivers to "go-starn, go-starn lah!" Which would translate as "Kindly reverse up old chap" in the more genteel word of middle England (if you had Biggles and Bertie Wooster as neighbours)
Do you know where the term comes from?
It derives from the nautical term of "go astern". the Stern being the back of a ship; therefore meaning to go to the back, or reverse. Translated by Malaysians... "Go-starn lah!"
My horoscope constantly warns me about being careful, especially with regard to electronic and mechanical equipment when Mercury (my ruling planet) is in retrograde (I don't know what that means either!!)
Being educated in a world of science, I did not pay much attention to such warnings, however with Mercury being in retrograde much of this month, and with the car breaking down last week, and to top it off the car being bumped into last night whilst it was parked in a car park last night; as Mulder would say... "I believe"
It took me 3 hours to get it sent to the work-shop.
With 250,000 km under its belt, it looks like I better get serious about getting a new car, but with the current economic situation and with a new house in the pipe-line to pay for, a few adjustments may have to be made.
Once again, Tom Hanks reprises the role of Dr. Robert Langdon; the role he played in "The daVinci Code" and once again, Tom Hanks's hair style was a distraction throughout the movie as it's now quite ordinary and the fact that it is so and not the distraction it was in the earlier film, makes it even more distracting! (If you know what I mean)
Apart from the haircut, the film was an enjoyable romp through the Vatican, though I'll always appreciate the book more then the film, especially as I was reading it during the ascension of Pope Benedict XVI; the book helped me appreciate the significance of the colour of the smoke emanating from the chimney of St. Marks Cathedral.
However the most sexy thing about the film was not the divineAyeletZurer, but the super sexy black Alfas, the police used to whirl around the Vatican with. That defined the tempo of the film, it was a non stop chase; a sort of Italian Job meets Indiana Jones.
According to information I've gathered from Sitemeter, recently (15th May 2009) someone in Brisbane Australia, did a "Vanity Search" for me and perused this blog-site for 5 minutes. Then they quit this site after reading my profile.
Yes! My first Stalker!!!!
Would this stalker please identify himself/herself.
Angry Chelsea supporters want to get their own back on Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo, who made a number of controversial decisions in the Blues' Champions League semi-final, second leg against Barcelona. They have set up an internet campaign to stop Norway winning the Eurovision song contest. (Full story: Daily Star)
Abba winning the 1974 Eorovision Song Contest with "Waterloo"
For those of you who have never seen it; the Eurovision Song Contest, this singing competition is held annually between European Nations and is seriously naff. It's a joke of a contest which can list Abba, Cliff Richard (before he was sired) and Bucks Fizz as previous contestants.
And by the way, Norway has led the way in scoring zero points in the competition regularly.
Once again we've begun the season of the Summer Blockbusters when Hollywood traditionally releases it's best films; so once again I brave the gaunlet of incredulous comments from the cinema's gate-keepers. "Yes, I do know where the screen is"; "Yes, I do want that seat"; "Yes I do know that it's two rows from the screen"
So off I went to watch the new re-imagining of Star Trek, where the baddie, Nero slips back in time to prevent his home world of Romulus from getting blown up; here he meets the young team of Kirk, Spock, "Bones" McCoy, Scotty and Ohura who are of course there to stop him from destroying all the Federation home worlds.
This of course causes a split in the Space Time Continuium, and history from this moment on is on a different path thus enabling the Rodenberry family to further cash in on the franchise by producing more films based on this new time line. Clever that. An interesting aside is the blossoming romance between Spock and the bodylicious Ohura. Look out for that in the next few films. (What is the Universe coming to!!?!)
Anyway, back to the film. As one would expect for a modern, big budget film, the special effects are extremely good, lots of whizz bangs and explosions. Also watch out for the kick arse warp-speed effect.
A typical feel-good Star Trek movie. Once again allowing us to venture into plots where no Trekies have gone before.
characterized by or exhibiting opulence: an opulent suite.
2.
wealthy, rich, or affluent.
3.
richly supplied; abundant or plentiful: opulent sunshine.
Origin: 1595–1605; < class="ital-inline">opulentus wealthy, equiv. to op- (s. of ops power, wealth) + -ulentus-ulent
The discussion started off on the cut-backs which one has to make to our current live-styles due to the current economic climate; it then went on to more personal level as the "Sage on the Sofa" was chided of leading an opulent live-style, for driving not one but TWO German cars. He went on to defend his "Spartan" live-style, by pointing out that one of his German cars was 14 years old and it's wipers did not work. And he tried to sell this car to me!!! Hmm....
Well the evening went along the same vein with everyone justifying their opulent aquisitions.
Needless to say that as a Baba, by definition, I did not have much to defend.
Below is a link to a BBC article regarding the Swine Flu and the impact it may have on the economy, (mainly the British economy but still applicable to the world economy.)
After last night's comeback by Man. Utd. (5-2 agaist Spurs after being 0-2 down) I reviewed the comments made by Glenda (Glen Hoddle) under similar circumstances back in 2001 ( Man Utd winning 5-3 after being 3-0 down). It is interesting to note that he believed that they would have won had they only been 2-0 instead of 3-0 up. (huh????)
Well yesterday's result has finally scuppered that ridiculous notion!!!
Recently I've managed to download the first 2 seasons of the British Sci-Fi TV series Blake's Seven. Like every British Sci-Fi TV series of the late seventies and early eighties, the effects are so bad that they are wonderful.
Below is a little ditty as tribute to Britian's answer to Star Trek.
Blake's Seven Where in heaven Did you find that, you freak Once again you've proved that you're a geek!!!
Been in the forums trying to find a Schnauzer A giant one I tell the web-browser Your budget you better rouser For a big hole, it'll burn in your trousers!!!
This Friday at the pub, I was roundly pilloried by the chaps for my drama-queen act.
Some one then asked me what pilloried means; so being the geek that I am, I did some research and the following is what it means.
A pillory (noun from Middle English) is a wooden framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, formerly used to expose an offender to public derision. (See picture below.)
Therefore to be pilloried (verb) means to be subjected to derision.
I certainly would not mind being pilloried by her.
The first most obvious downside of living like a nomad is that I can't remember where I packed my things. e.g. I couldn't print a confidential letter the other day, as I could not find my printer cables. My printer is sitting bold and proud on my dining table, but is absolutely useless without it's missing cables. I also could not find my SLR cables and took a chance that my camera would have sufficient battery capacity for my trip to Singapore, but it turns out that the batteries had only 6% capacity left. Oh, I can't wait to find a final resting place!!!
So... as of last Wednesday the 25th of March, I've moved out of my flat in Mahkota Hotel and moved into an apartment suite in Straits Meridian Hotel. This should be on a temporary basis as stuffing 3 bedrooms worth of stuff into 1 bedroom is rather... stuffy.
Straits Meridian Hotel
I've also handed over the Mahkota flat to the tenant Fredricks yesterday.
The strange thing is; since then; I've had the Beatles's song "She's Leaving Home" playing in my brain.
Today I got a new passport. My old passport would be expiring in 6 months time and the Jabatan Hal Ehwal DalamNegeri, (Home Office) sent me a reminder, which I thought was extremely customer friendly.
So today I went to the Malacca branch to renew my passport believing that this should take no more then the 2 hours as trumpeted by the Ministry and many people who had applied their passports recently. Judging from their new customer friendly approach, I foolishly accepted the 2 hour time-frame. Silly me!!!
The much trumpeted 2 hour time-frame starts ticking only after you have submitted all the necessary documents and monies. It does not include the time you have to wait to que for your que number, the time you have to wait for your photograph to be taken, the time you spend waiting for your IC to be photocopied, or the time you waste waiting for your number to be called to the counter.
Having spent one and a half hours doing all of the above, I then received my passport 2 hours later!!!
WHAT A BUNCH OF CHEATS!!!!
Talk about lies, damn lies and Civil Servants!!! Grrrr....
I shall be moving out of my flat at the end of this week. It's been let out to an expat working for Infineon, who made me an offer I found difficult to refuse. This plus the fact that I'm looking for a landed property to move into which will be more conducive for Marmite meant that it was an easy decision to make.
So I'm now currently in house-hunting mode and shall be moving to Straits Meridian as a temporary measure.
Although the flat is being let out fully-furnished, meaning that I don't have to move any furniture, I've discovered that this partial move is much more difficult then moving everything as I have to organise what to take and what to leave behind. Also I have to further organise my belongings into "Stuff that won't see the light of day for six months", "Stuff that I'll need immediately" and "Stuff which I might need within six months".
After this week's mauling by Liverpool and the UEFA Champion's League draw, the perfect comeback by Man. Utd. would be to beat Liverpool in the Champion's League Cup final.
Wishful thinking of course, but ... quite possible.
Another corking quote from the BBC web-site. "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad." Brian O'Driscoll when asked about his relationship with England coach Martin Johnson. (Davod Ennis, Ireland). Eh? Ed.
If you've read my profile, you would know that most of the reflections here are formed from the bottom of a whisky glass... the more obscure reflections are formed through a heavy bottom whisky tumbler!!! ;-))
The point is.... why doesn't my whisky glass give me these views!!!
I was watching Woody Allen's "Sleeper" when it got to the scene where they resuscitate him from his cryogenic slumber of 200 years. They peel off the foil that covers his face to reveal that he had been sleeping for 200 years with his trademark thick-framed glasses on.
It reminds me of the Malaysia MP whose newsworthy pictures show her sleeping with her thick-framed glasses on.
These days, it seems that the panacea to all Malaysian political problems is to lodge a police report.
Got a bullet through the post? Lodge a police report! Been kicked out of office? Lodge a police report! Had rude photographs taken? Lodge a police report! Been reported to the police? Lodge a police report!!! Let the cat out of the bag??? Will be reported to the police!
This weekend, I was speaking to a young lad who having just got back from his studies in the States, was having a whinge about the red tape in Malaysia.
Although I had very similar feelings when I first got back from England, my advise to him was to ignore the small imperfect things in life and address the things in life he really cares about. For in this world, there is not enough time to address all the ills of life. I used the analogy of Alexander Fleming's discovery of Penicillin; for if Fleming had to address all the issues with equipment (e.g. inventing test -tubes, microscopes etc) before he began to do proper research, he would never have made such a discovery.
Looks to me that I tend to use analogies as a teaching tool. One may even say that they are parables. Would they then be Parabolic Analogies??? ;-) Or am I going around in circles again?
I bought a Nokia 8500 Xpress Music last week amid much hype from Nokia. It promised to be as good as an iPhone and it's available here!!!
Today, to my relief, the merchant I bought it from, has agreed to swap it for a 16G iPod Touch, which is RM200 cheaper.
Am I unhappy with the machine? Oh yes!!! Although I was expecting to have a period of adjustment; as I'm moving from a Palm TreoPDA to a Nokia phone; however, I did not expect the phone not to be able to play video files larger then 100M!!! ( This despite coming with a VGA cable to connect to your TV in the starter pack) Most mp4 movie files are approx 600M in size.
On top of the fact that the OS is as cumbersome as a PC really had me fuming.
Trust me, if you are an Mac user, leave everything apart from Palm and iPhones behind.
Having said all that, the Nokia is actually a very good "Ghetto Blaster" and Xpresses itself extremely well as a music player.
The following photo was taken on the 21st of January in Ponderosa Golf & Country Club, Taman Molek, Johore Bahru during a round with Kingsley who lives a stone's throw away from the course.
Little wonder my game was a little off whack; if you look closely, my club's bent!!!
In the year of the Ox, Cow, Bull whatever... I thought it would be a good idea to Google the said terms. If you are an insomniac, like me, read the following link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle for a good night's sleep.
Another classic from Vijay. During the Nadal vs Simon match as Nadal fluffs a shot he says, "Nice to see that, once in a while, from the World Number One...(dramatic pause)... even if the last one was a couple of years ago."
Yet another dinner party with the Jim Cottage (JC) Gang. But this time with a twist. The night's theme was "ta-pow" (take away to you non-Malaysians) So it was off to Pak Putra for Tandoori Chicken, Mutton Rogan Gosh, Palek Paneer, Naan etc. The real challenge of the evening was left to "The Capitalist" Ong Beng Seng (or Uncle BS in some circles) to find wines in his cellar to match the food. He did us proud with his selection of:
Coonawarra Katnock Estate - Cabernet Sauvignon 1997 Capel Vale Howecroft - Cabernet Sauvignon/ Merlot 1996 Mount Langi Ghiran(Victoria) - Langi Shiraz 1998 All the wines were execellent and big, with the Mount Langi being the most robust of all. The Capel Vale was not far behind, and could be best described as a monster of a wine with a distinctive chocolate overtone on the nose.
If the above wasn't decadent enough, the old BS had to top it all by drinking "Kickapoo Joy Juice" from a Riedel glass!!!
Ah... but what's wrong with a bit of decadence eh? As long as it's positive right!?!
I was watching an old Gene Hackman film on telly just now and noticed that Gene Hackman bears an uncanny resembelance to Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Chelsea manager.
Any guesses as to which is which?
With his present problems at Chelsea, maybe Scolari should adopt Gene's escape routine from the "Birdcage".
After losing the Kuala Terengganu by-elections, DPM Datuk Sri Najib was quoted as stating that BN should not "rest on their laurels"..... I wonder how many padentic old farts like me out there immediately jumped up and down saying; "That's an Oxymoron!!!". You only gain your laurels for succeeding; YOU LOST!!!!
For those of you who want to know what the phrase "Resting on your laurels" mean, a full explanation; including why it means what it means; can be looked up in Wikipedia.
For the rest of you, (I've excluded myself as I've looked it up) it basically means resting on your past successes.
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