Wisconsin is cold

Mom reckons that Sze En and I are gonna be fat by the time we get home; she already asked us to weigh outselves before we left Perth in order to compare before-trip and after-trip body masses.

So anyway, the 2nd BB Pan American Tour kicked off last Sunday night when 13 of us took off on flight QF 79. After 36 hours of travelling, excessive stops at McDonalds' outlets, and tricking poor travellers into believing that that we're a national handball team, we're now ready to take on the USA.

Oh, the Tourists have been officially forbidden to blog during the trip, so you can find out more juicy details at the official BB Pan American Blog if you like. (some might argue that this blog wouldn't be updated anyway, but that's beside the point ^_^)

The Odyssey - Part II a - Faces and Places (West)

Kuala Lumpur was a strange and unfamiliar land, where Christmas trees are perpetually surruonded by camera-wielding tourists, and where huge malls dot the landscape. Not to worry, I came prepared!

Page 3 of 5

My sense of direction is absolutely appalling, so the tourists' map (which I photographed from the airplane magazine) came in handy when I got lost in the maze of malls. If my camera battery had died at the time, I would've been in a sticky sticky situation.

Taxi drivers, on the other hand, know their way around better. We hired one of the to drive us to The Curve, Malaysia's "first lifestyle pedestrianised shopping mall"

Model: Sze En

It's not often that I'm impressed by a shopping place, but the designers did a fantastic job with The Curve's exterior. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about some parts of the interior. I would've spent more time taking photos of the place, but Dad and Sze En were always eager to be on the move...

One thing that DID manage to stop Dad was the sight of NanXiang Steamed Bun Restaurant! I do recommend their tea, but only if you're not short on cash. Most Chinese restaurants in Malaysia only serve a "standard" type of Chinese tea; I haven't been able to find different brews anywhere else (possibly because I haven't actively searched for any, heh heh). Oh, and they have the quaintest china, too.

Cute!

These little buggers cost us a bomb

For grub of lower price but not necessary lower quality, Cousin Jenny took us to Taman Megah, an oversized open-air food court.

Many many many stalls

My beloved claypot rice; Something which is non-existent in Perth

You should know what this is ^_^

Scale: The mug on the left is about 15cm high

I'm normally not fussed about food (you might think I'm lying, since most of the photos above are of edibles, but it's true) but a strange thing happened that evening. As I walked around, deciding what I'd have for dinner, I couldn't help grinning when I saw some of the stuff. Pohpiahs, claypots, kueh chaps, etc. etc. etc.... I didn't miss them over the past 3 years because I never thought about them, but seeing them in front of me again was quite an experience!

Oh yeah, this entry is entitled Faces and Places, so I should show some faces, eh?

Cousin Jenny. She's married, guys... tough luck!

Slurp
(Naruto and his ramen are from chapter 181 of Masashi Kishimoto's manga)

Yes, I'm a mean mean brother who aims to shoot the most horrible photos possible of his beloved younger (but taller) sibling. To be fair, here's a stupid photo of myself.

Reeeee-tard!

This face of mine was snapped by Voon in Times Square, when I met up with the BB guys (and girl).

Representatives of 1^st KL, 3^rd KL, 10^th KL, and 1^st Kuching
L-R: Caleb, Debbie, Sam, Kenny, Sze Howe

The 5 of us were the ones who stayed the longest, actually. There was a much bigger group at the start, including many whom I've never met before. ^^;;

The story's like this: I first met Debbie, a budding young artist, through a chance encounter in deviantART. After learning that we were both members of the Boys' Brigade, we got to know each other more by insulting each other at every given chance commenting on each others' art. After that, I was discovered by Kenny Voon, who knew both Debbie and some UndergroundSquare members (partly because he shares the same name as one of the UGS founders, hehe). Small world, huh? Finally, I met everyone else through the BB Malaysia forum, and also become Sai Hong's correspondent for his International Relations award.

So, I thought I might as well meet up with them in their hometown! (No, I am not aware of any dangers about meeting up with people you met online) We had dinner and chatted at some Egyptian-themed eatery, then chatted some more at Starbucks (their coffee is overrated, actually). What else...? We also did a badge trade, hee!

Spot the odd badge out, among the bottom 2 rows

Captain Grove quite liked my new 'Arts, Crafts and Hobbies' badge when I showed it to him. ^_^ A certain 10^th KL sergeant now possesses my old Australian 'Skills' badge. These types of souvenirs are the best, I reckon.

Alas, given my short stay in KL I wasn't able to see everyone that I wanted to... Mian my fellow cross-dresser from Penang, who cancelled her debating competition in KL; Annabelle from my counterpart class in St Mary's, who was far far away in Sunway; and Sam the rhizobium who was also somewhat far away (and had a very squeezed shopping schedule to top things off).

No matter, I managed to catch up with the Kuchingites at a later stage. More details in the next entry which will be published over the next few weeks or so!

The Odyssey - Part I - Prologue

The first big question I asked myself after landing in Kuching was, "What the heck did I come all the way here for?!"

Three years ago I left Malaysia.
Three weeks ago, I went back.

And what did I get? Bullied. By the same group of people who gave me the following "punishment" for leaving Kuching, back in December 2004:

Nonetheless, being the forgiving and ungrudging person that I am, (yes I'm a very humble person too,) the said group of people and all my other friends back home are the reason for my 4000km trip to Malaysia. It was definitely worth every minute I spent there (ok, except for the few times I found myself stuck in a cybercafe with a certain MapleStory player).

I'm still waiting for a few more photos to be sent my way. When that happens, the serious blogging will begin, and the updativores (e.g. Samantha) will be satisfied. :-)

Of Nerdy Works and Travels

Meet Mr. Hamilton -- Ex-farm boy, current owner of Nemesis Solutions, generous sponsor of the 10th WA Boys' Brigade Company, and my boss.

It was by his offer that the three stooges (employee gallery below) got our jobs as professional nerds... i.e. web designers. Not a bad arrangement at all -- We get to work at home in our own time!

Monkeys, left to right: Sean "I am a Tall and Ever-Hungy Know-It-All" Meyer, Sze Howe "I Get Lost Trying to Get Home" Koh, Neil "My Brother Drives Me Nuts" Meyer
Feathered mascot: Georgie "I Poop on People's Heads" Meyer

A typical working day consists of much laughing (at each other), screaming (at each other), rib-poking (each other, again), horrible office music ("Oo, ee, oo ah ah, ting tang, walawala bang bang"), communicating with colleagues via MSN (the aforementioned colleages sit side-by-side), biting colleagues who don't comply with wishes (blame the Asian), and last and definitely least, getting work done.

Being employees of the Nemesis Solutions, we familiarized ourselves with some of the company's services, one of which is Workplace Hazard Identification. We have recently determined that Georgie our mascot breaches health regulations occasionally, and it is with great sadness ("HAHAHAHAHA, he pooed!") that we renounced him as our mascot. Nonetheless, we understand that the circumstances were beyond his control so he is still allowed to reside in the office.

Hazard: The by-products of a mascot's digestion

Seriously though, Mr Hamilton does show us some of the inner workings of the company. We were lugged up to Northam (about an hour's drive away) last Tuesday to have a look at the property there. Far from the ghost-town-in-the-middle-of-nowhere image I was given by some people before, the town centre is pretty well-developed and looks just like any other suburb near the city. The outskirts could use some work though... they'll get there eventually.

Anyway, I treated the trip as an opportunity to do some sightseeing and came across some rather interesting sights.

A view from atop a watchtower. This piece is entitled... "Trolley's Demise"

A paint-less, door-less, seatbelt-less (actually, make it seat-less... period) 4WD on the road to recovery

The new era of anti-smoking campaigns -- Smokers get called nasty names (looks that way, no?)

We hung around doing business-y stuff for a while, watched Mr Hamilton re-live his farm days with a sheep-shearing demonstration (we couldn't find a real sheep so we had to make do with a human substitute), then eventually sat ourselves in a pretty awesome cafe. At least, it was awesome to most of us... Sean lost that perception as soon as he discovered, to his horror, that the local Coke bottles only carried 250 mL...

The atrocity! People will starve with servings this small!

My Thai pumpkin soup

We had to head home straight after lunch because Sean had rotten teeth a dentist appointment. Twas a pretty fun day (there are more details, but I don't know whether I'm allowed to reveal them or not), all in all. One final thing to share regarding the day...

My first time seeing an 'L' plate on a truck! (Sakai bah...)

Speaking of which, I had my first driving lesson that day, exactly 1 month before my 19th birthday. ^_^ Kinda sad, but ah well. Speeding around a bumpy dirt field and rattling passengers was a blast, hee...

Go-karting: Another extra-business activity for us on Friday. I learnt to overtake others before learning how to control a car, hmm... *dons a helmet and speeds off, cackling*