blog archives
Malaysia
Perakean?
I received this patronizing email last night which made me cringe and my stomach wretch: Greetings from Perak, Hi there ! How is your life in Australia. Let me introduce who we are... we call ourselves deleted. We are mobilizing young perakeans to come back to the state. We are in the midst of a campaign for Perak Branding. This is a campaign which you... more »
Merry Christmas!
Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Pardon the long absence but rest assured I'm still alive and I'm currently back in Ipoh until the 29th. Cheers everyone! ... more »
In Death, the Celebration of Living
Today's my dad's funeral. We all got up early for the preparations. People arrived early, some just to pay their respects before they went off to work, particularly those who couldn't make it the night before. Last night, we had a huge thunderstorm and in addition to that, the city council had closed off a major intersection leading to our housing area for the 'opening'... more »
Monday thoughts
After my father took his last breath, everybody was gathered around, not knowing what to say or do next. We thought we needed to get a doctor to certify his death, and called the hospital but they told us to call the Police instead, which we did. Since this was a natural death, Police said to go to the station during office hours. We then... more »
Death of my Dad
I was awakened early this morning to be called to my father's bedside. We supported him and gave him assurance and he finally passed on peacefully at 4:30am, this Sunday 19th September 2004. It was a relief to see him calm and relaxed, happy that his family was all around him. The shock still hasn't really settled in. I'm feeling a bit numb to the... more »
United
My uncle from canada, and aunt from singapore arrived this morning, and they came over to our place. It was a tearful moment as everybody was hugging and crying. The Poh family is now complete, and I'm sure my dad is happy for that. He's going down really fast and mom tells me he says he's ready to go, to let go. He's refusing even... more »
Expect the Worst, Hope for the Best
Here I am in my parents' bedroom. Mom is feeding dad some rice porridge. He's feeling hot inside, and the palliative care nurse who was here a while ago says it's the pyrogenic (heat-producing) cancer cells, because earlier today dad was telling me he felt like he had a fever, but when I took his temperature, it was normal. After a long day of traveling... more »
Stressing out
Events in the past week have been driving me mad. For one, my dad's condition is getting progressively worse and mom's been calling me nearly every day to update me on his situation. She sounded anxious on the phone on Sunday and I was going to try to go back mid-week. But I too had some loose ends here to tie up before I leave,... more »
Of Presidents, Crocodiles & Farts
A "one-word story" by Joey, Jamie, Selina, Jackie, Shirley, Colin, Jonathan and Tristan. 29 June 2004 What was the thing you saw that looked like a toilet? It seemed like yucky & yellow-y slimy Tristan who Colin ate is so surreal. Jamie didn't brush her eyebrows and wash her armpits with shampoo. Colin smelt like a bottle of toilet gunk. They were smelling each others'... more »
Goodbyes
It's my last day in Malaysia for this trip and my dad is in hospital at the moment. It's extremely trying on the nerves and emotions having to leave the country without knowing if my dad will be well. I won't go into details on his condition until we know more about what's going on as the doctors themselves are a little baffled. I'm going... more »
Shopping Moods
I've been back home for two and a half weeks already and mostly been home-bound. There isn't anybody around to go out and hang out with, and I just don't feel the urge to go out and spend money. Even on my 4 hour transit in Singapore Changi airport and the last trip to KL, I was walking around listlessly and not even really paying... more »
Inconsiderate parkers
I went down to KL on the weekend to catch up with some friends, and when I got there on Saturday afternoon, I wanted to check out 1 Utama (shopping mall) to see what's changed and what's new in the new wing they've built. Despite the fact that they've got an additional 5 floors of car parks in the new building, i spent a fruitless... more »
Back home
I just arrived back in Ipoh yesterday afternoon after making a quick decision of come back when I heard about my dad's degrading health. He's been in and out of hospital a few times in the last few weeks for various conditions. Thankfully he was discharged yesterday and he was looking well when I got back home. I don't know yet how long I'll be... more »
KLIA Blogging
Here I am at the Satellite Terminal in KLIA waiting for my flight at 6:40pm. Pretty nifty that It's available here for free. I'm seated on the floor behind a Malaysian flag, next to a socket upstairs (where the restaurants are) cos I couldn't find any power sockets near the designated seating areas, and I can't risk having my powerbook run out of battery on... more »
Farewell Malaysia, for now...
Well this is it I guess. My flight is at 6:40pm but I'll need to be there a couple of hours before to check-in. I won't bore you with the mushy stuff but this trip, in my books, is the end of a chapter, and the beginning of another. As you'd probably expect already, updates will probably slow down for the next week or so... more »
Exhaustion
The past week has been really, really tiring for me. It all started on Wednesday when I went down to KL for a few days to spend some time with my brother and friends before I leave. Day 1: Drove down to KL, went to KLCC to close the bank account I still had there, went to meet a client for discussion on an upcoming... more »
Hideous Tribal Carving
Seen in the male toilet of Indulgence, the café where pretentious people of ipoh go to see and be seen. (yes, admittedly I was there...). The nose of the creature is actually a penis. For something less frightening, I've put up a really cute pic of Ginger in my Pets and Animals gallery.... more »
Strange driving behaviour in Ipoh
Look at the two photos below (click to zoom in) for a while and see if you can figure out what they have in common... done? Well in case you didn't get it... these pics were taken at a traffic light, and notice the HUGE gap between the cars. In the 1st photo you can see the car diagonally in front of me, but no... more »
Adrian's photos
I've uploaded the pics of Adrian's birthday bash at Souled Out taken with my camera. Glad to have met up with so many of you (I'm sure a lot of you were surprised to see me still in Malaysia, eh?)... more »
Ipoh on CNN.com
Hey, my beloved hometown is featured on international news! Who'dathunk? Too bad the news isn't exactly good. It's about unmarried couples being fined for holding hands in public. It was getting pretty heated up on local press especially since the people fined were not even Muslim, and since when did mere holding hands become 'indecent behaviour' anyway.. didn't expect foreign press to pick it up.... more »
Late Mail
Today i received a postcard from Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara about my new IC (myKad) being ready for collection. Thing is... I had already collected it 2 weeks ago! Furthermore, on the card it said i could pick up my IC from the 2nd of May onwards. Whether this late delivery was the fault of the JPN or Pos Malaysia I guess I'll never know (it... more »
Not feeling well
Just got back from the doctor. My sinusitis is acting up again, and it has to happen within a week of my flight, amidst all this epidemic of that mysterious SARS disease. She gave me a smorgasbord of medication to knock everything off hopefully before Saturday so i won't be sniffling and coughing on the flight and get quarantined and isolated from the rest of... more »
Malaysian Shorts
Tonight (right at this very moment i think), there's a screening of Malaysian Shorts (short films) at HELP Institute. Was told about it last Thursday but i had already plans to come back to Ipoh on Saturday. The thought of going back to KL on Monday had occurred but then I figured I still have heaps of stuff to sort out, and I ought to... more »
Langkawi Photos
I've put up 2 photos which I received from my friend whom i went with to Langkawi for vacation. He gave me prints, and I don't have a scanner so I used my digital camera to take a photo of the prints. Listening to Sigur Rós's ( ) now.... more »
New IC
Few days ago (18th March 03) I went to JPN (Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara) to apply for a new IC, the new-fangled MyKad which has a smart-chip on it. I was told by someone that it's quite fast, same-day processing time. Well.... Lets start from the beginning.. I arrived at the dept at 9:30 and there was a LONG queue leading out of the main entrance.... more »
Packing..
Here's a pic of my room now.. you can hardly see the floor.... more »
The Countdown Begins
Today I've finally booked my air ticket to Melbourne. Provided nothing unforeseen happens, I'll be leaving on 5th April, to arrive in Melbourne early morning on the 6th. And my new life begins.... more »
I hate (some) Malaysian Drivers
On the highway back to Ipoh last night, I encountered one of the rudest drivers on the road. I was on the fast lane, going at 130kph (which is above the speed limit) while overtaking a lorry, then this Idiot Black Perdana came speeding from behind me. I was halfway overtaking the lorry when the Idiot reached me and was tailgating me while GLARING his... more »
Hot Hot Hot
Phew. I'm melting here. It's a blistering 36 degrees (yes, Americans, I'm talking about Celcius) indoors. Can't (or don't want to) imagine how high it is directly under the sun. While Australian summers hit 40 and above, but those are only a few days in a year. We've been having this heatwave for the past few days already..... more »
Reunion Dinner
Being the eve of Chinese New Year, this evening we had our traditional Family Reunion Dinner at my grandparents' house. I just LOVE my grandma's recipe meatballs and look forward to it every year. Photos of the dinner here Tomorrow we'll be going back there to 'bai nian' (give our new year blessings) to each other and collect 'ang pows' (red packets with moeny inside).... more »