A must-watch M'sian drama series!

I've watched too many crappy malaysian chinese drama series (not the whole series obviously, as an episode of each was enough to turn me off from watching further) that I can probably claim to be a mini-critic.

Last week when I returned from baddie at around 11 pm, I was channel surfing and as there was nothing interesting showing on other channels, I settled on NTV7, a Malaysia TV channel. It was showing a drama series called Age of Glory, and I was so stunned by this quality production that I had thought of it to be a Hong Kong production initially as the actors spoke in cantonese in certain parts(to readers who didn't know, HK chinese dramas are considered to be the gold standard in the industry, as compared to those produced in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan or China). I discovered later that it was actually a multi-lingual drama, which certainly highlighted the local scene in KL. I actually found out it was a Malaysia production when the actresses started speaking in Malaysia-accented mandarin, which is unique as it sounds laidback and words are dragged towards end of the sentence, just as how people could tell Indos apart from their 'machine-gun' conversation speed.

The lead actress, Debbie Goh, was definitely the star of the show as she excelled in portraying the role of Rose, a kampong girl who was rebellious and aspired to be a dancer. She looked stunning from every angle and was virtually on every scene, so she had to be able to cope with the exposure..... and she did not dissappoint at all! Found out later on google that she was actually a former Miss Chinese Malaysia (1998) and had not had much success on an acting career, despite being signed to the Golden Harvest label, a giant movie production house. Based on this performance, she would have earned lots of credits and if nothing pans out for her at HK, she could always go back to M'sia for a TV acting career, or even Singapore for that matter. Singapore audience must be bored as whenever there's a cross-production between Mediacorp and M'sia, they have only used 3 M'sian actresses before in those drama series, and NEVER anyone else. If they do cast Debbie in those productions, I'm sure many eyeballs will stay peeled to the TV sets when the series are aired in Singapore, coz that's how good she is, not to mention her looks!

Thanks to NTV7, which has graciously put up all its shows for internet streaming on its website, viewers overseas can also watch this wonderful production. Show's mainly in mandarin with Malay subtitles, so u've gotta at least understand one of those two to be able to understand it. Here's the link!

Please do go watch Age of Glory! (It's free anyway, so you don't have anything to lose except for your time!)

KL trip

So, as was 'reported' in my previous post, I made the trip to KL last sunday. It was the third visit to KL in less than 6 months, all for different reasons. On previous occassions, I always flew there using budget airlines (which are so not budget anymore these days, with all the crazy taxes and airport surcharges). Tried to use different airlines each time, and so far I've been on Airasia (the best in my opinion, with hot-as-pancakes stewardesses to boot too!), Tiger Airways (Not too shabby, it's always on less than 30% capacity whenever I fly from KL to Singapore, so I can get the much needed leg space!), and Jetstar (WARNING: DON'T EVER USE THIS COZ THE LEG SPACE IS REALLY NON-EXISTENT! I barely survived the flight even though it was only around 40 mins!).

Decided to try a bus trip this time, in the spirit of adventure. I thought I had to be well-prepared, with my PSP and Ipod charged to the maximum as the whole bus trip was gonna take 6 hours. With all preparation made (ok I'm an easily entertained person I've gotta say, coz I can just stare out of a window and keep myself occupied for hours just looking at the scenery sometimes...), I made the booking for an Executive VIP seat on Grassland (one of the many bus companies taking you to anywhere in Malaysia from Singapore). It claimed in its ads that all its buses had reclining seats and also TV entertainment, & I found out only the former was true. Well there was TV all right, but it was showing only old movies that I believe very few people would be interested in watching, and the audio entertainment was just crappy. Didn't touch it for the whole trip after exploring it for the first 5 mins, and luckily my Ipod was enough to keep me entertained throughout. Having said that, the reclining seat was very comfy, and definitely worth the price that I paid for (SGD 48 for a 1-way trip to KL), as opposed to the tiny leg space that passengers are usually afforded in budget flights. Nevertheless, I still think that paying a hundred bucks more to save time, despite the discomfort during travel, is still worth it, so from now on I'll stick to budget flights instead of buses!

On my arrival at Berjaya Times Square, had my dinner at KFC (I know, it's such a dud thing to do, but I had no clue where to go for mamak stalls at that time!), and then proceeded to the hotel at Kepong as it was already 10 pm by that time. The next morning, my partner's friend picked us up as he was heading to Port Klang as well, & we woke up at 6.30 am coz my partner's phone was set to indo time (which is 1 hour slower than KL time)! Haven't done that in a long time, though back in the sec school days we used to wake up at 5.30 am to get to school. I guess sleep endurance is never gonna be like before again, when 4 hours of sleep a day seem to suffice.

KL is one bloody big place (I know of many people who would argue with me over this, especially Derrick). Yes I'm referring to KL and the surrounding areas ie. PJ, Cheras, Kajang, etc etc, & also including Klang, which is around 1.5 hr away. I got sick of travelling up & down from Kepong to Kl, which took around 2.5 hours all up, and the worst thing was that on the first day, when the shipment was supposed to arrive, all sorts of problems occurred, and the ship captain was detained by the navy coz there was apparently some irregularity with the ship registration, and the navy dudes asked for RM 300 'passage fee'. Capt refused to pay up on the spot, so he was detained along with the ship, and did not even call to inform us. It was already 4 pm by that time, and when we found out it was already close to 5 pm, when the navy office was already closed. So despite waiting at the port for the whole day, we didn't even get to see the stock!

Settled the problem on the 2nd day, and again we had to make the arduous 2.5 hrs trip to Port Klang again. This time the containers weren't delivered on time, so even though the stock was already at the dock, we couldn't move it onto the containers to ship it out. Luckily the dock master had already loaded similar goods before, so after leaving our instruction with him, we could blissfully head back, and that's the end of the worktime at KL!

What amused me during the trip were some interesting happenings. When we were on the way back from Port Klang to our hotel, we saw a truck hitting a sedan on the next lane, and the enraged sedan driver pulled out a parang (if you're not indo or m'sian, it means a huge knife) and challenged the truck driver to come out, presumably to settle some scores. Our driver immediately told us to lock all doors! I had wanted to snap a picture of that chinese dude holding the parang, but I was afraid that he might charge to our car and deliver a chop or two if he noticed me haha.

The next day when we were driving back to hotel after dinner, we saw a heavily drunk chinese man (again!) driving a mini-van sped past us, and he vomited beside the traffic light! He still continued driving though, and couldn't even keep his car straight and was just going everywhere, so we steered clear and went for a durian feast instead. Everything at KL costs half of what they're sold at Singapore, including this spiky-shelled fruit! I'm not really a big fan, but I've heard that there's a huge harvest this year, and it's going cheap, so I'm just gonna join in the fun! D24 was sold for 10 ringgit on a roadside stall (it costs SGD 15 at sg, so it's 1/3 of the price!), and it tasted amazing! I realized I must have had all the cheap durians in the past, coz I never thought it was that good before! Was wondering whether to bring it back to sg, but decided against it as it's never gonna make it through the customs (with all the gwai lohs on the flight, they're gonna make some serious noises if they could smell durian on board!).

Also visited a local pub near KL (the lady boss mentioned there were colleges nearby, but I had no idea which place we were at), where I was constantly hit-on by this malaysian beer girl. Kept on asking me questions, and though I kept on ignoring her coz I didn't find her interesting, she didn't give up throughout, & kept on clinging on to me, to a point when my partner's friend (who brought us there) had to intervene and told her to leave me alone haha. Still she didn't give up, and pressed herself against me and even tried to sit on my lap! At this stage I was quite irritated by what she was doing, so I got up and pretended to make a call outside. I thought by this I had sent her a pretty clear massage, but to my surprise she followed me outside and even passed me her phone number and email address on a piece of paper! I had to tell her I was only coming for a drink and had to return to Singapore the next day before she finally left me alone. This is pretty funny coz I remember getting hit on by some random girls on the rare occassions that I go to a pub (usually I wouldn't frequent pubs unless they serve food as well, like those Irish pubs in melbourne), with the previous time happening in Penang (which unsurprisingly was the last time I went into a full-drinking pub) when I had a drink with a good friend, and a single lady just came over and sit next to me when my friend was in the toilet. We chatted for a while and she gave me her phone number and left before my friend came back.

The most vivid memory of another happening like this was during melb summer 2006, when a few of us (Kel, Derr, Cindy & me) went to an Irish pub that was fully packed (I think Kel's friend was performing that night and we went along to support him). We were dancing away (ok that's a lie, the 3 of them were dancing & I was moving unnaturally like an un-co cuttlefish) & I had my back facing a gwai loh (I think later on we all agreed she was quite good looking, although she was big sized). Before I knew it, she started caressing my hair, and when I didn't make any reaction, she moved on to grab my bu** a few times, in full view of her party, and also Kel haha. All in the name of good fun though, and I think in the end we toasted her before leaving. Ahhh, one of the many memorable summer outings!

Ok I think I digressed too much from the topic. Apart from the interesting happenings above, also got to meet up with Derr's mom (Derr was supposed to be back but he lost his passport again in China, and I don't know why (that's another big fat lie!) I'm not entirely surprised). She treated me to a superb lunch at this jap restaurant at a mall called One Utama (at least I think that's what it's called), and there were creative sushi names like atomic bomb, lion king, etc etc (which like the adventurous names that came with it, tasted excellent!). Ok I think the name is sushi groove, coz I remember on the menu there were items that came with groovy sign, which meant it was the signature dish. After lunch, we went to pick Derr's twin sisters from school, and then went to his place, before sending the kids to tuition (whatever is happening to a carefree/memorable childhood). Before even realising it, it was time for my flight, and Derr's mom drove me to LCCT, where I waited for an hour before boarding the Tiger flight back to sg, and that concluded my action-packed 3-day KL trip this time!

There was still time for an interesting event after I landed at sg. Brazil Olympic soccer team landed in sg for training at exactly the same time as my flight, but I missed them completely as they landed in terminal 1 (where a 600-strong fan group gathered and must have caused a hoo-hah!) and I was in terminal 2. Only read about it in the newspaper the next day. Dang what a big big pity!!

A little blast from the past...

A 'small piece' of melb visited me 2 days ago. I've got to say I wasn't really thrilled abt it though. Let's just say it could have happened at a better time!

Anws, will be heading to KL in 2 days time for a biz trip. Notice there wasn't any exclamation mark, coz I'm not exactly excited about it coz I'll be on the bus for over 8 hours in total to get to the port. I guess I'm pretty lazy when it comes down to biz trips, coz I don't really get much fun out of it, though I know the experience is important. Gotta get myself more motivated for this!!

Will be applying for visa to USA next week. Woohoo! can't wait to finally get on that plane and get there, coz it's gonna be a life-changing event for me! It's not exactly a regular holiday this time, though I'll be heading to a few places (hopefully!) over 3 weeks. Estimate it's gonna take me slightly more than SGD 30k for this trip alone, so gonna have to save up again for the next big European hols I'm planning for next year!

Anybody interested to join me next year for the Great European Expedition? =)