Lunch @ Merlin Restaurant, Muar (29 Dec 2007)

Last Saturday, a group of us from 8GCC decided to drive down to Muar to meet our Type-R brother and have lunch at Merlin Restaurant (good seafood they have there). We were lucky enough to be joined by Napiioo (who was back from the East Coast) and Namio (who was not working due to production shutdown over the weekend. I should know, since we both work in the same place!)

Let's see. Ah, yes. We were supposed to meet up at the Shell petrol station at 1.00pm. I came from my office, and arrived at 1.15pm. Not surprisingly, I was the final 8GCC member to arrive. The others were already waiting: BLZ83, NAPIIOO, NAMIO, Convoy leader Takashi24 and Sweeper Hanne. Today, I was without my navigator, Kenjiez, who's usually riding shotgun.

A quick briefing by Takashi24, and we're off to Muar. From him, just two things:-

1. Keep your position lights and fog lamps on (so we know who's in the convoy)

2. Stick together, no overtaking.

Didn't really know what the speed limit was, so we decided on a reasonable figure ourselves....

The road to Muar was initially crowded with other vehicles, however, as we cleared the outer limits of town, traffic thinned as we headed single file towards our destination. This gave our sweeper a chance to catch up with the rest of the convoy (got stuck in traffic lights some way back).

In contrast to what you may encounter on the Ulu Yam trail, the road to Muar was a relatively boring experience. It's two lanes all the way, and as straight as the PLUS highway. You could probably take off and land a small airplane on it if you had too. Thus, within half an hour, we were at the bridge to the bustling seaside town of Muar.

Bro Takashi24 took us through the old bridge, past STMicroelectronics. That stretch of road had a few traffic lights within meters of each other, so our rather smooth ride adopted a more intermittent start-and-go stance.

Up over the old bridge we went, following the flow of traffic left, taking the first turning right and going straight past the first traffic light, going left at the next traffic light, we turned into a lane beside the row of shophouses to our right (that's about where my GPS map ends). No worries, as a short distance further, amidst a low density housing estate, was our destination - Mei Lin Restaurant (actually, it' MERLIN Restaurant - "Mei Lin" must be what the Chinese words spell out....)

Map to Merlin Restaurant

Lunch was a filling and satisfying experience, as the dishes were well chosen and ordered by our lead man, Takashi24. Food was good (especially when you're hungry...! Mr. Green ). Unfortunately, our Type-R bro was working, so he couldn't make it to our little outing. As a result, we've postponed our visit to the Muar Honda SC to another day.

Map to the Tanjung Emas Jetty

So, next destination was to the Jetty area where we hung out for awhile before heading back. Our next destination was Martech Sdn Bhd back in Malim Jaya (where they made custom exhaust and extractors)

Jetty area with a special roundabout.

Takashi24's GF took his ride as she was a little tired and would be heading straight back. So, Takashi24 joined me instead, and so, taking over as point man, I lead the convoy out of Muar using the slightly further, but less traffic light congested, second link.

As we cleared the final junction and turned left back onto the main highway just meters from the new bridge, my short career as convoy leader came to an abrupt end as one of the guys (I think it was Namio) shot past me. So, our convoy literally disintegrated as, one by one, all FD's blasted past me, including our sweeper (hrrmph- talk about insubordination!), disappearing into the distance faster than schoolkids on the last day of school! 10 seconds later, it was just me and Takashi24's ride cruising along sedately over the new Muar bridge.

OK. I thought those guys were just playing, but with not a Civic in sight, I believe I had some serious catching up to do, if I was to avoid being the last one back in Melaka!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, with correct use of my right foot and sticking to 4th gear, I managed to catch up with the rest of the group in a short while.

Thanks for waiting, guys. Really appreciate it!

The journey to and from Muar took up my remaining 7 bars of fuel, so I was at 0 bars when I drove into the Malim Shell station for refueling. Hence, going for an 8GCC convoy almost always results in poor FC.... Still, I managed to travel a total of ~550km since my last fueling stop, so I'll have to break my FC record some other day....

Well, look forward to our next outing - Ulu Yam, perhaps...?

A visit to the Alokarama Meditation Center on Christmas Day

It was Christmas day, and what did I do? Pay a visit to the Alokarama Meditation Center.

The meditation center is situated in Asahan. Technically, it still in Melaka, though it's at the border of 3 states - Melaka, Negeri Sembilan and Johor. To get to the place, you have to turn off the main road and take a small dirt trail for around a kilometer before you finally arrive at the gate. It's a pretty low key place - no fancy big signpost or even a tiny little one to mark itself on the map. You'll have to know that you're coming here, otherwise, you'd never have guessed.

Being situated in a relatively remote situation, the place was really quiet and peaceful - ideal for its role as a meditation center and retreat.

I brought along my wife and also my grandparents, who, interestingly enough are related to the Spiritual Advisor, Venerable Mahinda, who was also based in Australia, but comes to Malaysia from time to time. We brought along some red bean soup to offer as Dana to the Yogis.

It took us around an hour to get there, distance was roughly 50km, but the road was quite windy (my grandmother was a little queasy with motion sickness, so we went along slowly). My grandmother also didn't feel too comfortable in my Civic (pre-Koni FSD), so we used my wife's Vios for this trip.

The Alokarama meditation center was actually built in what appears to be an orchard. There were many fruit trees, including the infamous durian tree (you don't want to be caught with one of those falling on your car, or worse, on your head!).

This is the shrine. There are other buildings around like the meditation hall, kitchen, etc..

 
Plenty of parking over here, just don't park under a durian tree....

Due to my rush in getting up and out of the house, I brought along my full DSLR camera kit, minus my memory card. So, have to fall back on my Sony Ericsson W810i for photos....

One word of advice, do plan your trip here accordingly. As I mentioned before, you need to traverse a 1km dirt road, so if you ever go there after it rains....

 
It's gonna take some effort to get those front tires clean again

 
And more back-breaking effort getting those read wheels cleaned too!

Zool's Wedding

It's Christmas eve, and here I am blogging about (yet another one of) my friend's wedding. To be fair, these past few weekends have been quite packed. On Saturday, I went to Damansara to spend the weekend over there. The plan got off to a rocky start as I found out that my house over there had 3 locks for me to open vs the 1 key that they duplicated for me. So, after making it past the auto gate and padlock, I had to lock up the house once again and wait for my father to come home with the full set of keys....

Well, enough about me. As I was saying, the following day, I rushed back to Alor Gajah to attend the wedding of my long-time working colleague, Zool. It was actually a surprise announcement by him, just before taking a 2 week break. Quiet fella - never ever hinted that he was going to tie the knot.

Due to my, um, distant point of departure, I arrived at Zool's place at ~2pm, which was 2 hours later than the time I was supposed to meet up with the rest of my colleagues to convoy together. By the time I got there (after a short detour due to a wrong turn somewhere), all my working colleagues had already gone home. So, there I was, surrounded by roughly 100 people or so, all of which I didn't know. In a sort of Mr. Bean way, I made my way up to his house (which was on a small hill), greeted Zool, ate some food, and left. Hmm, next time, have to be early to avoid being caught alone.

Anyway, I didn't leave empty handed. Managed to get two shots of the newly-wedded couple:-

Shot 1 - that's Zool in a fine set of clothes, seated next to his wife

Shot 2 - a little more informal pose here

Well, that's one more friend off the eligible bachelor's list!

Have to get some sleep soon. Tomorrow, plan bring my wife and grandparents to the Alokarama meditation retreat in Asahan to give Dana as well as see my grand-uncle, Venerable Mahinda. Look forward to my post on this soon...!

Omron Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor

What did I get for the holidays? Well, there was a promotion at Guardian, so I managed to get a good deal on an Automatic Blood Pressure Monitor. The one that I got was an Omron, Model SEM-2.

Knowing my own physical state of health from my recent attempt in the Healthy Lifestyle Relay, I believe that it's best to focus on health for a happy and long, long life!

With this, I can not only measure my own BP and heartrate, but also for those in my family as well. In my family, no one has any cases of hypertension so far, but it's always advisable to check regularly.

I'm now exercising fairly often, so after establishing my baseline measurements, I'd like to see if there will be any improvements in the long run. Hmm, must be my nature as an engineer to monitor and optimize processes....

This unit is capable of storing measurement in its built in memory, and will average out up to 3 readings taken within a 10 minute timespan. This can be done since there is some variation between readings, even those taken consecutively. The process of self-administered testing is quite simple actually:-

Step 1: Find here the arm strap (left) and the monitoring unit(right).

Step 2: Following instructions on the arm strap, attach to left bicep and rest arm so that the position of the strap is at the same level with your heart.

Step 3: Relax, take a deep breath and press the Start / Stop button.

Step 4: You will hear a soft vibrating sound as the unit comes to life, inflating air into the arm strap that will slowly tighten. Don't panic, and try not to talk. It'll be over in a few seconds.

Step 5: Once the Systolic, Diastolic and Pulse readings are obtained, the arm strap will self deflate, and the measurements will be displayed on the screen.

Simple as that. Note that this will not replace your regular visit to the physician, but serves as an early indication if there is any abnormality in your blood pressure / pulse.

Well, now to get busy exercising to see if there is any improvement...!

First time participant - Healthy Lifestyle Relay 2007

 
Last Monday, I took part in my company's Healthy Lifestyle Relay. Don't ask me how I got myself into it - basically, I am more of the couch-potato type. Never though I'd find myself running competitively.

To be fair, the distance was relatively short (1.2km, as measured on Mapsource). For those seasoned marathon runners, 1.2km is a warm up lap. For me, that's one really long journey.

Luckily, I was the first runner (so the pressure of catching up with the rest of the pack belonged to the other 3 runners!). Out of 28 teams, we managed to finish a respectable 9th place. Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, the prizes were only up to 5th place. Hmm, must increase this to 10 next year....

The plastic bags that we are holding were the food rations given away. Consisted of orange juice, a banana and something else that I can't remember (remember, healthy food).

This event was also memorable because it was the only event where there were so many office hour staff taking place.

I will be posting more photos on this in the photo section soon.

Trouble with Streamyx - Intermittent Connections

If you've been reading my blog posts, you may be wondering, how come this guy always post about something that happened last week?

Well, if you really want to know, lately, there is a lot of intermittent connection problems with Streamyx, the local broadband service provided by TMNet. It's quite unsettling to spend some time writing up a blog entry, only to find that when you click "Save & Publish", you get an error message instead.

Seem to be having this problem lately, within the past week or so.

Please, TMNet, don't spoil my Christmas - New Year!

North Indian Cuisine @ Bonani

Just a few days ago, brought my family to dinner at Bonani, a small restaurant in Melaka Raya specializing in North Indian Cuisine.

It's right next the the Malacca Club head office, near Century Mahkota Hotel, Mahkota Parade and Mahkota Medical Center.

Was too hungry, so didn't managed to snap some photo of the food, but I recall we had cheese spinach, naan with dal, and tandoori chicken.

To wash it all down, had some Mango Lassi, which is basically a yogurt drink with blended mango.

Well, if you're ever on the mood for something different, do consider to give this place a try!

Asam Jawa

No. That's not a mutant peanut. It's actually an "asam jawa" or tamarind, offered to me by my colleague, Felix.

Never seen one in "raw" form before, though the dried contents are usually part of the ingredients of many local dishes.

Cracking it open, you can see the darker colored fruit inside, surrounded by some root like structure.

In this form, it's not as sour as when dried. This just goes to show how little we know about our own country (well, this applies to me anyway....)

Teambuilding at Taman Botanika Melaka (8/9 Dec 2007)

OK. To be honest, I was supposed to spend the night here, but since I was at the Xtreme Nights 2007 event and only came back at midnight, I only went over on Sunday Morning to join the rest of the group at Taman Botanika Melaka (formerly known as Hutan Rekreasi Melaka).

There were roughly around 40 of us from the Emergency Response Team. The current location was chosen so we didn't have to travel very far from our factory (though some of us who lived in the outskirts of Melaka might beg to differ!) The participants were divided into 3 groups - Singa (lion), Bangau (stork) and Katak (frog), and points were awarded for each of the games that were held (so there was incentive for them to go all out to win).

I missed the limbo rock and presentation the night before. I could have come over, but seeing that I got a little lost on the way to the campsite in broad daylight, coming over at night would probably add a search-and-rescue operation to the list of activities.... Fortunately, it didn't rain that night.

I actually parked right outside and walked all the way inside to the campsite. Later I found out that there was an unpaved road leading directly to the camping grounds. Actually, unpaved is a nice way of putting it. The road was laid with gravel, but not tarred yet. This made it necessary for me to inch my way through at a "blazing" speed of 10kph, to avoid damage due to flying rocks. Eventually I made it there (I later had to make my way out following the same trail).

Well, at least, due to my soundproofing and new shocks, it was more of a slightly noisy affair rather than a bumpy one.

The next day, we had a few more games, and shortly after lunch, it rained (everyone was sleeping in their tents). It was then that Mr Zulkifli, the IEHS manager, arrived for the prize-giving ceremony.

Well, it was another successful offsite event. Looking forward to next year's team building effort!

Links to the photo galleries are over here:-

• Gallery I (taken with a 85mm F1.8D)
• Gallery I, II, III, IV, V and VI

The map to Taman Botanika, Melaka

Xtreme Nights 2007 @ Car Park A, Bukit Jalil

Last Saturday, right after my appointment at KL Auto, I made it to the Xtreme Nights event at Bukit Jalil to join Kenjiez and Takashi24.

Didn't know what exactly to expect, this being the first time attending such an event.

It was already dark by the time I got there. Actually, it was REALLY dark, as there weren't enough lights in the correct places.

There were lots of cars, and even more girls, and really, really lots of photographers around. The cars were really pimped up, the idea being more for flashy and bling factor, rather than performance. These were strictly for display purposes, as there was virtually no more boot space left, making them impractical for everyday use. Besides, who would dare to park their show cars unguarded in the streets of KL?

For the girls, they were all over the place. I think that there was a lot of pushing and shoving as hoards of photographers crowded around them. Well, I think that if the situation was a bit more encouraging, there'd be more opportunity to get some better shots.

Was walking around, managed to find the Kaitenaz booth area. Wanted to look for my friend, Naz, but unfortunately, he was no where to be found....

Towards the later half of the evening, all attention was diverted to the center stage, where there were some stage events. Let's see, there was a display of yoga (or, in layman's terms, "how the heck can that guy bend like that?"), Capoeira (Brazillian martial arts that's more like dancing), more dancing by the girls and a group of guys, and more yoga display. The action was quite high and far up on stage, so, being armed only with a Nikkor 85mm F1.8 and a Tamron 17-50mm F2.8, I was pretty isolated from all that action. Hmm, next time, I will come better prepared. That didn't stop the photographer hoard from lining up all along the perimeter of the stage barricade, which meant I had to stand even further back from the stage....

Left around 10~11pm, as I and Kenjiez were heading straight back to our hometown. Arrived home at midnight, and got some well needed sleep, as tomorrow was yet to be a busy day....

Wei Ming's Wedding - 2nd December 2007

I've been summoned again! Looks like my friends are all lined up to get married these few months. Just not too long ago, it was Pon, now it's my primary / secondary schoolmate, Wei Ming's turn.

The wedding was held at a new restaurant, the aptly named Lucky Famous Restaurant. It's in Melaka Raya, opposite the Harbour Club. As the road is one way, you'll reach it first, and Amigo's is just a few doors down the road.

I was actually eager to meet up with old friends, and at the same time, try to be early from now on. Hence, official starting time = 7.00pm, my arrival = 6.30pm.

Unfortunately, none of my former classmates shared the same enthusiasm, so I was basically sitting alone by myself for roughly 45minutes before the first of my old friends arrived.

Seng Keat (behind the two sprite bottles) talking to Tiong Ping. Note that the entire room was packed. No room to move about, so I'm effectively stuck at my seat for the rest of the night!

Eventually, there were just the 4 of us, Min Fee, Tiong Ping and Seng Keat (in order of appearance). Sigh, it's hard to meet up with old friends nowadays, everyone's married and become parents. No time for old friends anymore....

Bride and groom preparing for the wedding march (quite far away from where I am)

Anyway, I did bring along my D200. Unfortunately, the restaurant was packed. Hence, mobility was somewhat limited (let's just say my waist will not clear the 6-inch gap between chairs). So, more unfortunately, I did not bring any other lens except the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 which was mounted on my D200. So, you'll see here that I'm slightly lacking in zoom power.

Argh! That's as close as I can zoom in on the main stage. Never mind, I have a plan....

Tightly cropped (from the original photo). Not bad, huh?

Well, at least with 10 megapixels, I can get a decent crop out of the photos, so there's still some hope.

Another cropped shot of the groom delivering his speech (you can see from the paper in his hand that he has a lot to say)

It was a quick and clean dinner, with entertainment throughout the night in the form of karaoke on stage (some members of the audience really took to the stage).

Finally, they're at our table. Time for YAAAAM SEEEENG!!!

The dinner was over by 10.00pm, right after desert (coconut pudding).

Well, another one of my friends has joined the club! Another one's coming up next month (January, so technically that's next YEAR). More details on that in due time....

Oh, yeah - for those of you who'd like the contact information of the restaurant (perhaps you're planning a wedding of your own?), please refer below:-

Deepavali Musical Nite 2007

 
Last weekend was a busy one indeed. On Saturday night, the Hindus of VSM organized their Deepavali Musical Nite 2007 at the Orchid Hotel. It's actually been nearly a month since the actual Deepavali, however, everyone's busy, so it's only now that they've managed to put together a celebration.

The Hotel Orchid was a relatively small hotel, with a really small function room (could just about fit 10-12 tables max.) and an even smaller parking lot (l parked at the Bayview Hotel next door, just to avoid complications).

The guest of honors were the management team of VSM, headed by the General Manager himself, Mr. Wee, who came with his wife and daughter. Also present were IEHS manager Mr Zulkifli and Production Manager Thye CL.

The event was filled with cultural and modern dances by the Chetti and also Peringgit Boys. There were also renditions of songs by the hired entertainment as well as members of the floor. As the main event, we had also a comedy sketch featuring our localized version of "Dr. Bombay", played by Logistics guy, Anand.

Throughout the night, 10 lucky draw hampers were given away. In the end, before parting company, the audience was invited on to the dance floor for some disco numbers.

In all, the organizing committee (notably Mr Tharuma, Mr Nowuram and the others) have outdid themselves once again. Look forward to next year's event!

I was there as the designated photographer (as usual). My choice of lens boiled down the Nikkor 85mm F1.8D and the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8, both excellent low light performers. To avoid swapping lenses, I mounted them on my D70 and D200 bodies respectively.

Meanwhile, the photo galleries are at:-

D70 Gallery - I
D200 Gallery - I
D200 Gallery - II