Happy 51st Merdeka Malaysia

It's 31st of August 2008 today and of course it's our very own Independence Day. It was 31st August 1957 when Malaysia known as Malaya then first declared Independe from the British government. For me, there's not much to celebrate except to enjoy a day of public holiday from work. Since today is Sunday, therefore tomorrow Monday will be declared as a replacement holiday for us. By the time people are enjoying their merdeka holiday tomorrow, me and my lovely partner will be in Koh Samui enjoying our relax romantic holiday. Talking about this, with the current riot and protests in Thailand, I hope that our flight later to Koh Samui won't be cancel and we can have a peaceful trip and memorable time there with everything smooth and safe. Coming back to Merdeka, my wish for merdeka this time around would be for the government to look more and help more for the welfare of our people, help us to ease our burden with the recent price hike on all the goods, and of course be a clean and efficient government. Let us all work together for the sake of the nation to make Malaysia a harmonious and desired place to live. We don't want outside world and foreign medias to call us 'childish' even though we have already an independant country for 51 years. We have the talent, resources and everything that is needed, so make that count....Happy 51st Merdeka Malaysia!

Anwar is back in Parliment as Opposition

Finally, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, our former deputy Prime Minister is back into the Parliament after a lapse of 10 years. Up till now, in the unofficial result, he has got more than 15k votes against his closest challenger which is of course the Chinese speaking BN candidate. He will represent the Permatang Pauh constituency, which was vacated by his wife and PKR president Datin Seri Wan Azizah in order to make way for him. He has promised that the opposition collision Pakatan Rakyat will gain control of the nation by Sep 16 and that the price of the petrol will go down once he become the Prime Minister; these two will be remains to be seen but one thing for sure is that BN will have even tougher ahead...

Air Asia 1Million Free Tickets Giveaway is back !!!

Yup, you heard me right from the title. Air Asia 1 million ticket giveaways is back. Starting today till the end of the month, try your luck on booking the free tickets to all it's available destinations. The travelling period this round is from next year April till July 2009, which is not very favourable to many cheap holiday hunters given that it's very far away from now. However, as I have always told my colleagues, "if you want cheap tickets, you have to do it this way; there's no last minute free tickets". Last year I managed to get the tickets to Kinabalu and HongKong, but this time around, I don't think I'm making any move even though I have few desired places in mind that I would love to go with my sweetheart but maybe I will just postpone my plans due to budget concern...haiz...So those of you out there who have already gotten your free tickets, congratulations while those out there still searching for free available flights, best of luck to you all...

Beijing Olympics 2008 The Greatest Show ever!!!

There you have it...after more than two weeks of record breaking feats and stunning performances from athletes from 204 countries, the 2008 Beijing Olympics finally came to the end. Normally the opening ceremony show will be a good one, but this time around, the host China never rest on their laurels and displayed a splendid performances for the greatest show ever. Of my years of watching sporting events, this is truly the best ever I have witnessed.....Go China go China!!!

Above is the top 5 final standings of the medal chart. For the first time ever, USA was dethroned from the overall champion position and China looks strong way above the rest with 51 golds. I did watched many events and the chinese athletes really show their superiority especially in diving, table tennis, weighlifting and badminton. Malaysia for the first time in 12 years managed to grab a silver from Datuk Lee Chong Wei through badminton men's single event although he was being trashed by world no1 Lin Dan from China. Below were the pictures from the closing ceremony.

Fireworks in the shape of the Olympic rings are shown over National Stadium during the closing ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympics on Sunday, August 24, 2008.

Performers line the field during the closing ceremony of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing, China.

Performers participate in the closing ceremony for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Sunday, August 24, 2008.

Dancers perform during the closing ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Olympics at the National Stadium, in Beijing, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008.

Acrobats perform on a column during the closing ceremony of the Games of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing, China.
Dancers perform during the closing ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Olympics at the National Stadium, in Beijing, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008.
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, right, and British pop singer Leona Lew perform the song "Whole Lotta Love" during the closing ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Olympics at the National Stadium, Sunday, August 24, 2008.
English soccer star David Beckham kicks a ball during the closing ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Olympics at the National Stadium, in Beijing, Sunday, August 24, 2008.

Fireworks explode over the National Stadium to start the closing ceremony of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing, China, on Sunday, August 24, 2008.

Fireworks explode over China's National Stadium, also known as the "Bird's Nest," during the closing ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing, Sunday, August 24, 2008.

(AP photo by Alexander F. Yuan / August 24, 2008)

Malaysia petrol price down rm0.15 to rm2.55 per litre starting today.

The prices of diesel and petrol have been reduced by between eight and 22 sen a litre from today, 10 days earlier than expected.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said RON97 petrol now costs RM2.55 a litre, a drop of 15 sen from RM2.70 a litre while the price of RON92 went down by 22 sen to RM2.40 a litre.

The news cut above was quoted from The Star 23 August 2008.

For me, to be fair say...it should be lowered much more than the announced 15 cents due to the global crude oil price was down so much to USD110+ per barrel. The government is still earning a lot through our cut-subsidised petrol price. With this cut, it will at least ease some burden of us citizen but the price of goods raised after the petrol price hike will remains the same, therefore it's still not good time...so plan wise and spend wisely. After my hike this morning, I went over to my regular petrol station and filled up my car with the brand new petrol price...hopefully the price will go down some more....but then again, am I dreaming?

Cheap flight to DownUnder

Air Asia added another long distance route through Air Asia X to Melbourne, Australia and the booking starts today 12am. The cheapest 1 way fair is rm99 excluding taxes and charges. My ex-colleague whom studied in Melbourne last time told me that the best time to visit there is between Feb to Apr as Nov to Jan will be too hot and Aug to Oct will be very cold. The travel period was from 12 Nov to 30 Apr based on the print screen above and I found from the website that there are available dates from 2 March to 7 March and after including everything, the round trip only cost rm1072...That's actually very cheap....around 50% price cut compared to other available airlines. So if you out there planning to visit Australia and visit Melbourne...what are you waiting for? Faster grab this golden chance...

I Became Live Witness to flash flood...

Wow, there was this heavy downpour happens just outside my office yesterday and after around 30 mins, the roads in front of my office was hit with flashflood. From my office toilet windows at around 10+am, I could see that the water level was as high as covering the car front plates parked by the roadside. The whole area especially the T junction in front of my office building and the Teluk Bayan hawker center car park was like a deep pool full of water. Most of the cars' alarm got triggered causing hoo-haa and I also saw there's 1 lorry got stucked and dare not move in the middle of the T-junction with the driver inside. Luckily the rain got smaller by lunch time and water level was dropped off quickly. For the rest of the day, I can see cars being pushed over due to their engines being flooded with waters and mechanics around fixing some of it...Phew..what a day... I'm grateful that I'm inside the office and my vehicle was not one of those got affected by this flash flood...

Proud to be a Chinese!

Anyone miss the Olympics Opening ceremony held on 08-08-08? Well, it was 29th Olympics, first ever in the Chinese capital of Beijing, China. Like many of my friends and colleagues, I purposely went off work earlier, then went out dinner with my love one and finally came back early and set ourself in front of the television set to catch this great show. It was truly breathtaking showpiece lasted 4+ hours. I'm really really felt happy and proud to be a Chinese, even though i', not from China....Bravo and thumbs up for China!!!

Below are some of the pictures from the opening ceremony, Enjoy!

Photo taken on Aug. 8, 2008 shows the shining Olympic rings on a huge LED screen, proclaiming the arrival of the Olympiad, during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in the National Stadium, Beijing China.

Dancers in glowing attires.

Performers walked around a floating sphere while the Chinese singer Liu Huan and the British singer Sarah Brightman sang the official theme song for the Games.

Soldiers stood to attention as fireworks went off.

Chinese gymnastics champion Li Ning (R) lights the cauldron of the Beijing Olympic Games during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics held in the National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest.

Chinese former gymnastics champion Li Ning kindles the cauldron of the Beijing Olympic Games during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games held in the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest.

The cauldron of the Beijing Olympic Games is ablaze over the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest.

Fireworks explode over the Bird's Nest stadium, Beijing China.

Once in a lifetime - 080808

Last year we have 070707, which is of course one of the day that I looked forward too. It's special to me personally. But this year, 8th August 2008, it's a much world wide recognized special day. Especially for the Chinese, the number 8 is always tied with good, whealth and prosperous...basically anything GOOD la. News reports showing many couples wedding on today, and more importantly, it's Olympics 2008 grand Opening Ceremony!!! This unique once in a lifetime day...much take a moment to appreciate oh...Then look forward to 090909 again...hahahaha :)

A rare finding...

Throughout all these years of eating durians, I have never come across such a unique finding of the durians i ate. This finding happens few weeks back while we (me and my parents) are opening up one durian. Straightaway upon open, we are so surprise to see that this durian have 3 sides (normally when you open the durian, you can only see 2 sides) -> refer to the picture below:The durian taste was not bad, but also not very very special given that it's not expensive in terms of the price. But it's the shape and 'unique' finding that captures my attention. So I straight away went to my room to take my camera and snapped few pictures for the record and now share with everyone...Below is another shot of the whole opening of this special unique durian. Enjoy...the view of course!