burn the past

i wonder if anyone nowadays still keep a 'traditional' diary. i used to have one many years ago but i stopped writing diaries either because i was plain lazy or because i don't wanna be reminded of certain happenings. on one rainy Sunday, i opened my drawer and found my old diary, dated 2002. that was seven years ago! i read through it and it brought back memories, both good and bad. however i stopped writing in May 2002. that just goes to show that i just couldn't be bothered to keep a diary. what i wrote are of course personal and the ups and downs i went through. it occurred to me that i could be a drama queen at times and i am not proud of it. but then again, i was 19 then.

anyway, what do people normally do with their old diaries? do they keep them? how safe is it to keep a diary anyway? it could easily fall into the wrong hands and it could easily be used against you. of course there are names in it and God knows what'll happen if someone reads it. *touchwood* but then who knows one day i might be famous and people would pay to read my diary. yeah, dream on. since i know the chance of that to happen is slim to none, and i wouldn't wanna take the risk of it falling into the wrong hands, i thought i should burn it. after all, it is in the past. let bygones be bygones. so, i burnt my diary on one fateful rainy Sunday evening.

The Diary

bye bye past.

burn baby burn.

i know it's bad for the environment to do an open burning but i'd rather not take any chances and slip the pages in between newspapers to recycle.

chaotic court

The KL Lower Courts have implemented the Tracking System, akin to the Tracking System of the High Courts, which commenced on 2 November 2009. Since it was the first day of the implementation of the new system, the situation was a total madness. The place became hot, stuffy, crowded, and noisy. Everyone was restless, agitated, irritated and annoyed. There was a notice board outside the Registry whereby we were supposed to check the case list and mata became juling looking for the summons numbers. Lawyers were made to queue for more than an hour at the Registry at Level B1. After queuing for more than an hour (the queue barely moved), we were told to proceed to the cubicles, where we had to queue again. The place was small and stuffy and the worst part is there is no reception at Level B1. I only had 2 files on Monday and my file was only called at almost 5pm. At one point, I sat on the floor because my feet were aching from standing for so long. A friend told me that his matters was only finished at 530pm and at that time, there were about 20 lawyers left. And yesterday, a friend said that his matters only finished at 645pm. What the heck?

Note to self: wear comfy shoes to court. maybe i should get a comfy ballerina flats.

check the receipt

When you go to a petrol station, do you just go to refuel or do you go in and buy stuffs from the mart, say drinks, gums, chocolates etc? As for me, most of the time I would go in and buy drinks and/or snacks. Sometimes I stopped by just to buy drinks or stuffs. Anyway, if you use Shell petrol, you would probably notice that Shell would always come up with promotion e.g. buy two packs of Yeo's drinks at RM 1.80 or buy one 100 Plus at RM 1.50 and you can buy Seasons soya bean drink at RM 1.10. I'm a sucker for these kinds of promotions (heheh) so yesterday while I was on my way back to the office, I stopped by Shell at Jalan Tun Razak (beside Pusrawi) to refuel and to buy some drinks when I noticed the said promotions, among others. I bought a can of 100 Plus and a can of Seasons soya bean drink. I forgot to check how much they charged me until I reached the office when I remembered about it. Luckily I kept the receipt. When I checked, it turned out that they charged me RM 1.80 for the 100 Plus and RM 1.60 for the soya bean drink. So today, I stopped by the petrol station to buy some drinks when I casually asked the cashier about the promotion. He went about explaining to me and promoted to me the other promotions as well. then I said to him, "Semalam saya beli 100 Plus dengan soya bean ni tapi cas harga biasa lah." He then said, "Oh ye ke?" Then i said, "Iye. Saya ada resit. Nak tengok?" I showed him the receipt and then he calculated and apologized. He then returned to me RM 0.80.

Moral of the story:

1. Always check what you paid for.

2. Always ask for the receipt and keep it.

3. Always check the receipt there and then.

4. Do not fall for these kind of promotions.

weekend project part 19

This is an overdue post. this project was done on the weekend that i went to Akon's concert, which was 2 weeks back. i had a friend over at my house so i decided to bake a cake. i have had the recipe for quite some time but i never got around to trying it. the recipe is simple, but a bit of a hassle because i had to whip two separate batters. the cake turned out ok, soft & moist, just nice but the cheese was not distinct. it is called "Chocolate Marble Cheesecake" by the way. i'm not keen on baking it again in the future, though. it is not so chocolatey and not so cheesy. maybe i should find another recipe.

kindly ignore the long beans. takde kena mengena dengan recipe.

cream cheese batter

chocolate cake batter

pour one part of chocolate batter into the baking tin.

pour the cream cheese batter on top.

pour the remaining chocolate batter.

bake bake bake. the recipe says that it can be steamed as well.

turn the cake upside down when it is cooled.

cut when the cake is completely cooled. as you can see, that's the marble effect.

event 3

Akon's Freedom Beach Party was awesome! the queue was really long but the excitement was beyond words. it drizzled for a while but that didn't stop the concert-goers to party. Hunny Madu and Nadya of Flyfm were the emcees for the night. the opening acts were Nikki and Caprice. unfortunately some people (foreigners mostly) were not being sporting that night that they booed Nikki and Caprice and they chanted Akon instead. i mean, come on, give them a breaklah. there were so many foreigners and not to mention, Akon wannabes hahaha.

Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach

I got the RM188 tickets!!

The Pitt

Akon came up at about 9ish

He performed a stage-jump!

But i was not close enough to touch him.

The tickets were courtesy of Flyfm.

I was there!!

After-party passes that enables me to enter Ministry of Sound for free.

Overall, the concert was awesome! Hoever, Akon didn't sing the song 'Be With You', which is a current hit at the moment and some songs, he only sang snippets of it. Rumors has it that he mimed at the concert. i think so too but what the heck!

the anticipation

i went here.

got into the building, went up the elevator and came to this.

some fancy machines along the corridor.

this leads me to the office. nobody was around.

this is how their office looks like.

these are what i came for.

of concerts and postponements

what's with concerts in Malaysia being cancelled/rescheduled/postponed? i personally think it's too much. one after another concert is being either cancelled/rescheduled/postponed. if there are so many issues, why approve it in the first place? fans have been waiting and anticipating the concert since day 1 but then it got postponed time and again. i am not much of a concert-goer. heck, i don't think i've been to any concert in my life. as much as i love the artiste and/or the songs, i don't go to the extent of spending hundreds of ringgit to purchase the concert tickets. but if i am interested in going, what i'll do is enter contests that gives away concert tickets. this is when i rely and hope on my lucky charm.

that's exactly what i did for the upcoming Akon Freedom Beach Party Concert. the last time Akon was supposed to perform, i did try to call in Flyfm during the cue to call but i never got through. instead i won in-season passes to watch the movie Ice Age 3. so yeah, i win some, i lose some. it's better than not winning anything, right? i thought, ok fine, takde rezeki lah nak tengok Akon. so when they postponed it, i thought, ada jugak hikmahnya i didn't win it.

that was then.

now that Akon's concert has been rescheduled to 24 October 2009, i never thought that radios are still giving out concert tickets. so one fine day, while i was driving, i heard that they are gonna play the cue to call soon. i waited anxiously. when Hunny Madu gave the cue to call, i immediately called in. there was a ringing tone! i was so nervous (don't ask me why). eventually, she picked up my call. luckily she picked up my call on time or i'll be disconnected. she asked me, "may i know who is this?" and instead of answering her, i immediately said "please tell me i'm the 8th caller through!!" yes, i was super excited ok. to add to my excitement, she said i was the 8th caller through.

so yes, i was lucky. the fact that i got through is one thing, the fact that i was the caller that they're looking for is another.

the only thing is, i'm gonna have to figure out when i should collect the tickets, which is all the way in Bandar Utama. damn it. courier je lah. pfft.

event 2

i consider myself lucky. alhamdulillah sometimes it is so easy for me to win a contest. this time is no exception. it was a very simple thing to do. in fact, it is not even a contest. all you have to do is submit your list of songs on lite.fm for the Dial & Dine and if they happen to play your selection of songs on weekdays at 1-2pm, you have to call in and voila, you get to dine with the lite.fm announcers. this was my 2nd Dial & Dine. last year i got invited to dine at Jogoya Japanese Buffet at Starhill.

told ya it was easy but i believe it depends on luck as well. hey, it's free meal with good company, so why not? and no, no slogans required.

Nipah Coffeeshop, Equatorial Hotel, KL

desserts

with the lite.fm announcers but Rex was not present that night.

they asked questions and i answered and i got a Jim Brickman double cd. this was with Sara, the announcer. you can listen to her on weekday mornings on the Lite Breakfast show, 6-10am.

a friend got the Kenny G album and gave it to me.

event 1

It was the cue to call. I merely tried my luck and got through Hitz.fm. So i won these two invites.

the passes

the sponsors

Redken hair products

i got my hair done for free!

Maybelline products

i also got a makeover done for free!

the ladies waiting in line for hair & makeup. who doesn't want a free hair & makeup done by the professionals, right?

the event was ok. kinda boring, actually. the emcees, Rudy & Moots from Hitz.fm was ok but at one point they were only busy entertaining the people from the HOT magazine and they kinda ignored the guests. i think the guests merely stayed for the sake of staying. there was a performance by James Baum but the songs were not too familiar to my ears. i might have missed a few events when i was doing my makeup and hair. there were lucky draws but i wasn't lucky. come to think of it, i was hardly lucky at lucky draws. but at least i was lucky enough to win the passes.

of events and parkings

i think i have blogged about my frustration with regards to parking around my office area one too many times but i just could not help it. every time there is an exhibition or event going on at the KL Convention Center, the whole area will be a chaos. parking rates will increase dramatically. imagine from RM 7.00 per entry to RM 15.00 per entry. i kid you not. another parking lot charges from RM 8.00 per entry to RM 10.00. if i were to enter the parking in the morning, and then go to court in the afternoon and return to the office in the evening, i will have to pay twice. so you do the maths. there is one parking lot which does not increase the rate but of course it was full way before 9am.

the thing is, usually the parking lot for KL Convention Center is reserved for the exhibitors and the lot will be closed to public. so those who used to park there, will have to park somewhere else. but sometimes, i suppose the many halls in Convention Center is not enough (duhhhh) and the parking lot is used to set up tents. so, the exhibitors will have to park somewhere else, which makes parking for office workers much more limited.

i thought the Convention Center has many exhibition halls so why the need to set up tents in the parking lot?