3 States 8 Hours

yesterday marked the most tiring but enjoyable journey ive had on a working day.

I set off for the Low Cost Terminal around 5.15, which was awful because that meant i had to wake up at 4.30. Imagine that! It really doesnt help that the airport is far far away.

Reached the low cost terminal and checked in, and yes, its my first time flying air asia. I have flown no frills before (easyjet, and before that go airlines before they were bought by easyjet) but this is the first time i did it here. Boarding pass was in the form of a receipt and since I only had a backpack with me, and a laptop/document case holder, i didnt need to check in. I went for a coffee bean breakfast and braved the crowds for the security check in.

Now, since this is company travel, i did fork out an extra rm20 for 'xpress boarding', which pretty meant u didnt need to queue and could walk straight up the plane. being a low cost airline system, being first in line meant u get to choose which seat u wanted, and for me that'll be A1, thanks. window so that no one on my left to disturb me, and front most so that im the first one off the plane ( which i was, on both occassions).

but what i didnt expect was that malaysians really wouldnt pay rm20 for xpress boarding, and that meant my rm20 for not queueing up made me the centre of attention/anger to people as I strolled down the tarmac whilst everyone had to wait. i could feel the burn of 100 odd passengers staring at me with disgust. yeah yeah, watever.

we landed at alor setar 45mins later, the flight so quick it was almost over as soon as it started, and the new alor setar airport was nice, brand spanking new, still smells of paint. glass and steel and well planned signboards, etc. shame, if only there were more planes. I mean, not saying anything, but our plane u-turned ON THE RUNWAY to get to the terminal.

still, that was nothing until i got into a cab with Pak 'kob, whose taxi rattled me all the way to Kangar. I didnt know which was worse, the Airbus shaking when taking off, or the taxi when its doing 100km/h. Its that bad. Half the time im hoping he doesnt hit a motorcycle, the other half i hope his car doesnt disintegrate.

We reached Kangar and managed to find UPEN. Submitted my tender and then headed off to Aloq Setaq (as the locals say) to collect something from the State Treasury. I notice that Pak 'kob was banging on about speed limits, and only when i returned back to KL did i find out that apparently (correct me if im wrong) theyre quite strict with speed limits there. Oh well.

After collecting something from the State Treasury, headed off to Penang Airport where I bode farewell to Pak 'kob and his millenium falcon taxi.

Was impressed with Penang airport, but dissapointed with the food outlets. Outside the departure lounge there was a Nandos and coffee bean, but inside they had three outlets ran by the same company serving shit food. I briefly entertained the thought of sneaking into the MAS business class lounge, but then im on a whole different airline, so, maybe not a good idea.

so took the flight back, again, it was me alone on the tarmac boarding the plane, sitting at the same seat i sat that morning (but different plane!). my only gripe was that my plane back to KL was with the Man Utd livery, and i didnt think it was a good idea to punch Ronaldo's eye before boarding, lest i damage a panel and cause an untoward incident (with me in it!).

arrived KL about 4ish and headed home for some rest. it was 8 hours on the move, quite tiring if u ask me. especially if the previous week uve been stressed about this particular thing. but now im glad its all done. yay!



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today i received an email from my boss. im jetting off to labuan on the 4th. my tentative return is 3weeks later. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

im thinking of getting a flight back during one of those weekends. seriously, its crazy.


well peeps, gotta go catch some zzzss.. will blog more soon (labuan may be piss boring.. then ill have to blog as much as i can!)

work work work

so again, work has dominated part of my life. but I think thus far there is some sort of work-life balance. Not really balanced but its getting there I guess.

ive been yearning to go on a holiday with friends. Bali sounds nice and Phuket sounds tempting. However, time and money are two main restrictions. ive been looking at the air asia site and checking out their deals. Pretty good methinks.

talking about air asia ive booked my flights to kedah. flying off in the morning, catching a cab to perlis, then catching a cab to penang and then hopefully manage to catch the flight back to KL before 2.30. Its gonna be a tiring dayyy...

well, im going off to bed now, its wayyyy past my bed time. will blog more soon (yea yea yea i know i always say that).


ciao peeps

Mid Year Review

Tell me, did you remember what happened 6 months ago? Think about it, think about what your hobbies were, where you were and what were you thinking about.

Now compare and contrast the differences between now and then. Any changes? Any new things, new outlook, new views in life?

Well if you say 'no' to all that, then maybe life is good for you and you have decided to stick with the convention and go on with it, hey thats good. For me, it has been a little bit more different.

As I wrote in my earlier earlier blogs, I have changed jobs. (Not many people know this, how so I'm not sure because I'm sure I've been telling people how much I want to change jobs. Maybe they dont listen. Haha)

Anyways yea, i have switched from Investment Banking (or 'glorified clerk' at investment banking) to consultant. Yes, yes, I know its not even been a year since I've started donning ties and made my trek to the office every 7.30am, but I had to do what I had to do - seize the opportunity and make the change.

It was a risky move, what if my new post is exactly the same like the previous one? What if it is worse? What would I do, having used my 'get out of shit job' card already?

But thank God that things have been great. I like the place, I like the people. I know its still early days, and I have told myself that there are always two sides to every story. The other side of my new story has not made itself present yet, but I think I can guess what they might be.

Everything else is going great. I'm so much happier, I look forward to doing more interesting things other than my requisite mamak stall hangouts, I frequent new and exciting places to eat and I have made some lovely new friends.

So far so good. Then maybe I was right after all.



Now that is out of the way, I have finally found a hobby that I truly like and something that I may be good at. I am now one of those 'people' you see carrying a huge camera on weekend snapping at buildings and flowers and the sort. I have found a new hobby in SLR photography.

I guess it all started from using my dad's camera at Cameron Highlands. There I learnt some stuff about shutter speeds, apertures and the like. If you head to my flickr page then you would be able to see some of the pictures that I took. I would say I am still a beginner. I dont know much about all the high tech things that all those professionals use. One more thing is the lack of photoshop. I dont use image editors at all, only to resize the pics to a manageable level.

Im using a Nikon D80, and I have got two lenses, one is the 'Kit lens' which is a 18-135 f/35 and thats pretty good for some outdoor photography and 'events' kinda thing.

My other lens is a 50mm 'standard' lens with a f/1.4. Its one of the fastest lens you can get for reasonable money. Any faster and you're probably looking at near-five figures. Apparently there is a lens built back in the 60s or something that goes f/0.95 and thats the fastest you can go... i think. So yea, that is my pride and joy, but it is a bitch to use, the pictures tend to be blurry and the only reason i need a f/1.4 is for indoor night shots, and that doesnt happen very often.

Oh by the way, I hate using flash, so yeah, thats why i need a f/1.4


ok people, I got to go, got some work to do. Ciao Bella!