Camera is Rolling Already

Yeah ........ the camera is hitting the road and going places to get our dramas on video. Our brother Kerk is the man behind the scene. Together with my co-director, Lud Lee, we arranged for a shooting at Vista Kiara condo located at Mont Kiara.

Preparations started prior to 6pm and ended at 8pm plus and the outcome was only a 2minutes 50seconds video........ manyak susah..... toil and sweat but the outcome was so little but we were satisfied. The fun we had, the laughter, the excitement, the tense moments, the quiet moments (during shooting) .... was worth it all .... like how Mastercard advertised - priceless!

The husband & wife team was depicting a conman and a corporate lady having a dinner arranged by a matchmaking agency. Bear with pictures as it was taken by a camera phone at 2MP at 7pm plus.

As for tomorrow night, we are hitting Mutiara Damansara area. Will be shooting in a boutique shop in Cineleisure Damansara (next to The Curve) followed by another scene in a karaoke. Then karaoke all the way???

All 5 dramas will be acted live on stage and certain parts of each of the drama will be in videos. All in the month of December, each Sunday and Christmas Day. Of course, you are invited too!
Tags: Christmas, Christmas Drama, Video, Priceless, Vista Kiara, Mont Kiara, The Curve, Cineleisure Damansara

Don't Call BLACK

Ah Hua went for a job interview to be a secretary. When the manager saw Ah Hua's colorful attire and gold, white-highlighted hair, his mind is screaming, "NOT THIS WOMAN!!!". Nevertheless, he still had to entertain Ah Hua. So he told Ah Hua,"If you could form a sentence using the words that I give u, then maybe I will give u a chance! The words are "Green Pink Yellow Blue White and Purple"

Ah Hua thought for a while and said,"I hear the phone GREEN, GREEN, GREEN, then I go and PINK up the phone, I say YELLOW.....BLUE's that? WHITE did you say? Aiyah, wrong numberlah.....Don't PURPLEly disturb people and don't call BLACK, ok? Kum Siah (thank you)."

The manager fainted....
Tags: Ah Hua, Secretary, Interview, Jokes, Funny, Humour

Palace of the Golden Horses

The name sounds like a place belonging to a royalty family but actually it's the name of a 5-star hotel located on the outskirt of Kuala Lumpur. Palace of the Golden Horses' design is very unique inspired by the Moorish era.
My family decided to go for a buffet dinner at this hotel after we found out that Shangri-La Hotel's Lemon Garden Cafe was without air-condition for that night. The other reason we chose it was because we have not been there for their buffet dinner.

It was about 10-15 minutes drive from my house. We reached there around 7.35pm and went to Carousel Cafe which housed the buffet dinner. Quite empty, maybe most of the city folks were back at their hometown during the long weekend break. The price was RM60 and RM40 for adult and child respectively at this cafe. With that pricing, we expected the food to be satisfactory. To our dismay, it was not. We were disappointed with the food that was served.

* The supposedly fresh salmon fish was really bad as the moment you bite into it, you can tell that it was not fresh at all.
* The mee rebus' gravy was thick but without much taste.
* Prawns cooked in chilli and spices were not fresh.
* Butter for bread melted like nobody's business ....... u can drink the melted butter on the spot.
* I wondered what kind of mushroom soup was that as it tasteless. * Their readily cut fresh fruits were so pale and was off its original colours.
* Cooking style for various dishes were almost the same.
* About 12 main dishes but its quality/taste were not up to its 5-star hotel status.
* The first few tables' lighting at the entrance was too dim.
* The food that I enjoyed were the roast lamb and ice-cream.

Would say that it was a shame that we were the only diners left at 9.10pm (even though officially, it was opened till 10.30pm for the buffet dinner). Need I say more. Everyone has left except my table. Are we supposed to leave as well so that they can close the cafe earlier? Was very sure there was no emergency evacuation at that time. Not long after that, walk-in hotel guests came for their ala-carte meals. If you look at their decorations, it's so old already. I wondered how long this cafe has been in such state (low patronage by diners).

We left around 9.45pm as the mood was not there and right after dinner, we went to a friend's house at Sri Petaling and told them our ordeal. This couple had been previously and had even decided to take this hotel off their list of places to eat forever. So have we!

Shangri-La Hotel has to take the blame partially .... hehe. If not for their air-condition situation, we would not have gone to Palace of the Golden Horses (noticed the hotel area was full of horses).

Please take away the word 'Palace' as the food served at its Carousel Cafe doesn't justify the use of it. The hotel's ambience was beautiful and hopefully their other restaurants are up to its 5-star standard.
Tags: Palace of the Golden Horses, Carousel Cafe, Buffet Dinner, Food, Shangri-La Hotel, Lemon Garden Cafe

Tioman Ferry Disaster

A ferry operator, Seagull Express, for the route from Mersing to Tioman Island was responsible for several human lifes when fire broke out on that ferry.

Insufficient life jacket, improper evacuation procedure and overloading contributed to the deaths and injuries suffered.


The unfortunate event of the fire onboard (left pic) caused 4 deaths and 3 still missing where the search would be called off on Friday if still not found.

Personally, I have not been to Tioman Island before but been to nearby islands for diving. Remembered seeing those long queues at the Mersing jetty waiting for such ferries.

I was not surprised that such ferry operator was still operating even though operating licence and passenger certificate had expired on 16 March 2006 and 18 March 2005. Such ferry operator only thought about the income/profit that they could reap off from the unsuspecting customers. Yet 2 days ago, the ferry operator claimed that they have complied with all licences. I propose that they be banned for life from operating such services again.

It seems that two ship inspectors from the Marine Department have been suspended from duties too. Another clear cut case of close on eye to the ferry operations??? These people were playing with human lifes. It seems that prior to departing the port, a clearance was required from the Marine Department. I always wonder why respective government agencies only take stern actions (checking all ferries in Malaysia now) when such tragedy had happened. Can't they be pro-active a bit. Buck up man!

You could also get some first hand news from another Johnny, Johnny Tan, who is the boyfriend to a girl, whose brother Wong Hann Wen is still missing at sea. The Star newspaper didn't report any negative statements but in this blog, the full account of what has happened when the victims' families requested to go out to the sea were not granted.

Blog is the way for the future as newspapers nowadays wouldn't report it (as they are under close supervision from the top).

The other licensed ferry operator, Bluewater Express, must be laughing all their way to the bank now as they would be the only one now. But you travellers beware as Bluewater is not that safe either as highlighted in this letter by a traveller who went through dangerous moments during her journey to and back as well. Just the same as Seagull Express and disaster waiting to happen too, as quoted by the traveller.
Tags: Tioman, Tioman Island, Pulau Tioman, Seagull Express, Ferry, Marine Department, Bluewater Express

Stucked in Between Two Floods

When I told my friend that I could not go to his house on Saturday afternoon due to the flood, he asked me what happened. Told him that I got stucked in between two floods...... baffled as I was, he asked "How did you get yourself to be stucked in between two floods, how did you get past the first one??"

hmmmmmmm.... good question. A few of us were supposed to be at his house for one of the drama practises but unfortunately things went awry. I managed to call another group who was making their way and they managed to slip out somewhere and went back home.

I picked up a friend at Taman Seputih at around 4.50pm amidst the heavy thunderstorm. Made my way out of Taman Seputih and took the highway going towards Cheras coming from the Federal Highway direction. The two Touch & Go booths have malfunctioned which caused all cars to squeeze into remaining booths. Paid and all I need was about 10 minutes before reaching his home in Alam Damai.

Took the road leading to Bandar Tun Razak Industrial Park and was caught at that traffic light until I saw some cars going on the opposite direction at the left hand emergency lane. What's going on? Saw cars reversing and making 3 point turn to take the emergency lane. Need to do likewise as the traffic light area (under the flyover) was flooded. Others cars which saw this batch of cars reversing and going the opposite direction stayed put allowing us to turn back to the highway. Nooooowwww the highway is jam packed too. 20 minutes - moved about 50 metres. On reaching the top of the flyover, I saw the highway flooded at the bottom of the flyover. I paid toll to get caught in a flood.

So I thought I was smart in getting out from that earlier flood only to get stucked in another one elsewhere. Waited for the flood to recede, what else!!!! Didn't go for the drama practise and dropped my friend back at her house in Taman Seputih and reached home at 6.30pm. For 1 hour 40 mins, I was out there in the car. By the time I reached home, noticed that I have forgotten to take any pictures at all.........how come?
Tags: Flood, Kuala Lumpur, Taman Seputih

Redemption of Bonuslink Points

I have been a member of Bonuslink for quite some time back, maybe just after their launch...... can't recall the exact date but long enough.

Saw that my accummulated points is quite high at the moment with some points about to expire in December, I decided to redeem some stuff.

When I went through the Bonuslink website, a Philips brand iron fits my household as our only iron has its metal base coming loose. No, no, we were not rough in using it. It has been serving my household for umpteenth years now. Time to retire.

Last week, my wife went over to Parkson located at OUG and was told that only the primary member, which was me, could redeem items. Aaaargh.....

So, we decided to go there again yesterday late morning and had our lunch at Leo's in Citrus Park. New food outlet and was recommended to try the Terriyaki Chicken Claypot Rice. Good choice! Went up again to the redemption counter inside Parkson shopping centre.

Failed again........... this time, I must have a redemption PIN number in order to redeem.......... Do you know how frustrating it was? I told the counter staff that I have redeemed items before at Shell petrol stations and I got what I wanted but she still said that I must have a redemption PIN number. She said come back on Tuesday so that we could make a call to Bonuslink and settle the PIN number on the spot. It took me soooooooooo many weeks just to be there. Went back home, checked Bonuslink website, true enough under "4.3 On-the-Spot Redemption", a PIN was required..........

Now I have to call Bonuslink and ask them what PIN number??????????????? Came to work today with an unironed shirt....good thing I did hang it properly after washing it so you could hardly see those crumbled section, good clothing material anyway. Lesson learnt - don't assume things and take the easy way out.

Tags: Bonuslink, Parkson, OUG, Philips, Leo's, Citrus Park, Shell

Running All Over

Going to a friend's condo at Mont Kiara area to have our video shoot for the upcoming Christmas dramas (5 of them in production).

Today's drama's video shoot is for the Lady's Life which depicts this lady having a date with a guy that was introduced by her friend who owns a matchmaking agency. Somehow this guy is not the type of guy you would want to meet. He registered himself with the agency to know ladies and then cheat them by taking naked photos (after spiking the lady's drink)....... now how are we going to video shoot that scene ...... hehehehe

During wild brain storming sessions - this guy (we chose the actual actress' husband to play this role also....hahahaha) was supposed to take out her clothes (without showing her of course) by holding a bra and throwing it away ........... guess that wouldn't pass the censorship board....hehe. Well, that was the wild brainstorming sessions lah.

Going in a short while ....... have to set dining table just outside a japanese restaurant located within the condo compound, as if it was a dinner at an open air japanese restaurant. More pictures later on.
Tags: Christmas Drama, Christmas, Japanese Restaurant, Mont Kiara