Exams over !!

Finally...

4 papers in 2 weeks is no joke for an old man... haha...

Went back to office today and everyone's telling me I have this
drained out face... (and i tot i look like this daily...? )

Alright.. how did I do...?
Would be glad if I can get average grades for my Business Papers and pass both the IT papers...
That's all I want for Christmas..

Haha... Besides that, maybe a Panasonic DMC-LX3 for Christmas.. =)

Anyway, let's check out what Sitex has to offer this month..
From 27 - 30 Nov 2008 at Singapore Expo

Wedding dinner Msia style.

I was invited to my colleague's wedding dinner last Sat in Melaka, the home of the chendols and round chicken rice.
Been to Melaka for a number of times so nothing new to me... maybe just that it's another part of Melaka.

The rest of my colleagues drove there in the afternoon... I had a night class so, no choice loh.. had to wait until my night class to finish before i can go... Also, I'm waiting for this trip to test out my latest gadget, Hepco & Becker 30L junior side panniers !! (ok.. they are not exactly new.. i got them 2nd hand)

So off i went after my class at 930pm. Reach GP Esso at around 10pm, luckily there was no jam. Standard stuff.. pump petrol, pee, drink alot of water and off i go..

Was testing the boxes... n true enough.. no aerodynamics with this side panniers on.. Once the meter go pass 160km/hr, the bike starts to wobble.. *guess the rear's too heavy then*
It's kind of no fun then.. knowing that it restricts u.. but then again.. with the panniers.. you can bring alot of stuff on a trip.. so got to give and take.. my bike isn't meant for fast touring anyway... i'm just turning it into a budget tourer... haha..

So i can play around now that i have 3 boxes.. most of the time in sg will just be the top box... since the ger complains about difficulty with mounting the bike... (i'm thinking.. she just needs more practicing... wahaha...)

These few days riding alone... I have been practicing with moving between vehicles with the panniers.. i think i'm ok with them already... since the rear is only half an inch wider then my mirror.. its easy to gauge the space required..
ok... so back to the top box again now that i m home... side panniers put aside... (that's y i got them 2nd hand.. i predicted this..) *but i really like the feeling of 3 boxes... can carry soooo many things... haii.. no choice loh.. give n take*

I think only on days when there's lots of stuff that needs to be carried out OR if we go touring 2-up, then you'll probably see the 3 boxes in action.

ho ho ho.. enough of the boxes.. nobody can imagine.. motorcycle boxes also can blog so long?!?! Aiyah.. u don understand 1 lah... unless u r a true blue touring fan... Better go back to main topic b4 kena complain... (don't u just luv Singlish? I do and I'm proud of it !! )

So... as predicted by me... i reached there in 2 hours time.. nv pia too fast ok... just going at a constant speed of 140 - 160km/hr.. and with a little traffic.. and no stops.. i'm not exactly tired after that also.. guess its becos I'm used to it already.. (fast ever done was 1.5hrs from Melaka town to GP Esso at 180km/hr nonstop.. with a BMW GS1200 and Honda Blackbird 1100... ok i'm the smallest cc and slowest too..)

Exited 231 Ayer Keroh.. went pass the familiar scenes... 1st Petronas.. then Melaka Zoo then Macdonalds.. then 1st traffic light junction turn left.... then go straight again... until Orna Golf Resort.. ok.. rather easy.. but... WHERE IS THE CHALET ?!?!

Stuck in the middle of nowhere.. i decided to ride to the Golf Course reception and ask the guard.. where is chalet num 1.. he told me its the other direction at the round about.. ok.. go to the roundabout.. read the signboard.. "Maintainence house".. wah lau.. standard man.. kok up signboards in msia... but i just rode in... pitch dark... no signboard... it's really not for the 1st time riders...

Ok.. where the hell are the houses !??! kept on riding in slowly... n finally.. i see something... a house... rode pass it... to the next house.. so dark also cannot see any signboard lah...
so... carry on.. again.. luckily.. in the next house i see 4 cars... 1 presage, 1 wish, 1 jazz and 1 ignis sports... ok lah... this should be the house !! *press the horn* and out came MC... alright.. confirmed liao...

parked my bike n went in... ok.. kena allocated 2 x di lum, 1 x pillow for the night... no more rooms left for me.. but i'm ok with that lah.. as long as got aircon n hot water to bath.. i'm cool..

Check out My "room"

Oh.. it's a 3 storey chalet btw.

This is how it looks like in daytime.

The signboard that says "Chalet 1".

U tell me lah.. how to see this signboard in darkness!??!

Some views around the chalet.

He turned his own car into the wedding car.

The restoran

Too many things to write man... tired liao.. shall stop here..

I'm back !!

Not exactly been to anywhere... just that life was pretty hectic for me recently with the work and study eating all my time.. i hardly have time for tv... today's a long afternoon becos my boss jio me for lunch... for a short catch up session...
(for a moment, i tot wat happened man.. did i do anything wrong recently that was discovered? =P )

Things that happened during these few mths..

- I won an ipod nano 2 during a company contest.
- My team had a restructure, now I report to a European supervisor in Holland.
- Had fun playing her Wii.
- Cleared the irritating IPPT once again. *phew*
- Had a lousy dinner at Buckaroos for my birthday.. haha.. but i had fun trying to console her on my birthday.
- My tail frame broke.
- I got myself the Hepco & Becker side racks and 2nd hand 30L side panniers for my birthday. (nah.. that's just an excuse to mod the bike)
- Spend a bomb on my bike maintenance. Very poor this month.

Ok lah... too little time too many things.. n I can't really study nowadays, the energy level is weak and unwilling... i shall do 2 modules the max next sem..

It's going to be a very tight next 2 weeks again.. 1 assignment deadline today, 1 online quiz to complete within these 3 days, colleague's wedding in Melaka this weekend, 2 assignments due date on next Tue and Thur.

OMG and godspeed.

Time is not enough.. !!

I haven't been blogging for a while... doubt anybody will miss me anyway since not many ppl know about this site... lol

Have started my new job for about a month now...
Still in the honeymoon phase i guess, trying to understand the whole picture.
Teammates doing knowledge transfer once a while... i guess they must be hoping I can be operational soon and take part in all the on-calls and numerous projects that's happening in this region.

Sch has started and it's just 2 weeks and I am starting to feel the stress level creeping up on me.
Basically, after work, it's either gym (with this damn IPPT comming soon) or trying to read my books.
I have came up with a new plan.
Every Saturday, I'll probably head to office for some nice quiet mugging.
Reason for saying this? You must be thinking that I am siao. (hokkien for crazy)
Everyday in office still not enough ah? Weekend also want to go office.

Well....
Staying at home.. i can't really study at home with all the distraction.
Library? Everybody is there too.
Airport? Lotsa ppl there during the weekends.
So i choose to go to where all ppl don wan to go. Office. =)
You get free aircon, water, food, internet and most IMPORTANT of all, peace.

I've started this plan last Sat.
Went for a class in the morning, after that bought lunch and ate in office while reading through my books. Felt slpy at times... other times might be reading but seems like nothing is going in...
Decided to stop at 4pm and went to the gym. Did a 3km run, some pull ups and situps... bathed and went back to the books. Left at around 6 to meet the ger for dinner.
Knocked out at around 12am.

Woke up at 10am, did some more reading for my group assignment.
Went out to watch The Mummy 3 at 245pm, wasn't really an exciting show. I'll put it average at best.

Went home watched some tv, did some reading again...
Sian lah... wah lau aye.. how come I have this feeling I m like studying for exam...?

Ok time to go bath and try to match my assignment characters to their motivation levels.

BatMan - The Dark Knight

Caught this on Sunday.
Been watching movies at cck lot 1 shaw recently. Last last sunday was Red Cliff.
I bought 10 movie vouchers at $80 so that catching a show during the weekends is still cap at $8 for myself.
Shaw cck isn't a very fantastic cinema, that's exactly the same idea why I always go there.
You can always get good seats for shows which are just released compared to GV vivocity or Cathay Causeway Point.

Have been watching Batman ever since I knew it.. Compared to superman or spidy, I prefer Batman. (My msn nick has 2 bats too. LOL)
Maybe because he has more cool gadgets compared to the other 2 guys.

So for this show... I find it enjoyable..
Nice attire, cool batmobile-cum-batbike ?

Joker... well... he's good... but as I says "maybe ppl get more popular after they die".
The only downside would be the show is very long.. it's around 3hours..

Next on my list would be... 'The Mummy 3: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor'.

Pagoh Challenge 2 Report

Hey hey, this time round, the Hornet Team is the winner. =)


The meet up at GP Petronas should be at 8am in the morning.

Normally, traffic should be fine on a Sat morning at 2nd link. I reached 2nd link at around 730am. Who knows there's a jam today and I was stuck in it for at least 30 minutes.

By the time I cleared customs and reach there, it was near to 9am. 1 by 1 the people start coming in and by around 930am, Spectrum decides to send the 1st group to Pagoh first. (There are still a num of ppl stuck in the jam.)

Did the usual briefing.






Once briefing was completed, we took the usual team photo and geared up.


Kes is the lead bike as Spectrum is waiting for the rest to come.
Endless is the designated sweeper.
Motrax & TCY are the last 2 shooters.
Me? Just as I thought I would be riding as per normal, I kena arrowed to be the num 2 bike.
What does the number 2 bike have to do?

No 2 has to make sure the convoy is not following too near to the lead bike. (normally 2 car length behind). He has to be the marker whenever there's a bend or divider so that the convoy doesn't miss the turn/exit.

The lead bike's job is to navigate and control the pace of the convoy.

And so off we went to Pagoh. It is about 150 km away from Gelang Patah. (~1 hour ride away)Traffic was smooth and soon I was marking at the Pagoh exit when Motrax came up to me to inform Kes that there was a super4 low on fuel.

I was like WTF ?? Super4's range should be around 300km.
I joined up with Kes and told him what happened.The last guy is following him slowly on the NSH.
Kes asked me if I know where's the chendol/durian place.
Yup, I know and suddenly I am promoted to be the lead bike. (like army field promotion u know?) Hahahaa... don't ask me y like that lah...

Ok... reached the Chendol stall and it seems like they are just starting to setup the stall... so I brought them to Mr Teh's durian stall.













Does anybody know what is this??


The usual team photo


Everybody's just eating so happily, testing this durian that durian.
Generally, there are 3 types there.
RM$3/kg sweet durians
RM$5/kg bitter durians
RM$18/kg mao shan wang (Mountain Cat Durians) - suppose to be the best


I did not eat any at all.. don't like the feeling of dirtying my hands and no place to clean them.. It's the 3rd durian trip with them and I have not eaten any yet.. haha..

After a while Spectrum and the rest joined up with us.
Motrax, TCY, pplater and me left for the Chendol stall first.





Later the briefing was done at the Chendol stall.
Once it's done, the Hornet team left immediately. Ya, we r very kiasu.
My team is abt the same as last year.
TCY on his Harley Nightster, Motrax on his Hornet 600, FY on his Hornet 900 and me on my Hornet 900.


1st stop, petrol station.
There is suppose to be 1 just beyond the junction.

Motrax hasn't been touring for too long, he turned left once he saw a petrol station sign when we are supposed to go straight. And so we went to a petrol station that's so much further away. Haha..! We will need alot of petrol stops along the way as the Nightster can only do around 150km/tank. Soon we get ourselves back on track on the NSH to the furthest target, Tangkak. We wanted to start from the furthest target and work backwards. Another reason is partly because we are hungry and need to lunch.

Took us awhile in this town... before we found the checkpoint.. the instructions are not exactly that clear too.

1st station - Tangkak Restoran DoDoDo Beef noodles.


Very tasty Beef noodles and soup
3 Big 1 Small


The view outside the shop.


Round 1 was done... and it started raining... so the guys decided to go for round 2...
Round 2 consists of Claypot Beef soup.. very yummy..




After 2 rounds of eating, no one from other group found this stall yet. Hmm....
The rain stopped and we decided to move on.
Next stop - Segamat Airfield
Fairly easy place to locate, it is an active airfield located beside a golf course.


The proof that we were there.


Spotted an iguana. Do we get bonus points for this?


3rd Stop - The white armour of Pagoh
This is an armour vehicle left behind during WWII.
There are a few located in various locations in Pagoh.
Unfortunately, it is in a police station and we don't dare to go in.


Last year we found another model and no, they are not beside each other.
Pic from 2007.


Ok.. 1 more stop and we are done.. Who knows this is the hardest... We even had to stop along the way because... diralang masuk (do not enter) already. Don't wish to go in and get shot at.




So we did a U-turn and restarted again... Even in the town itself, we went round and round and round before we found this place... and guess what.. Bird Nest farm of Yong Peng (#14 shop)



The proof that we were there.


Once done, we went to the RV point which is only 2km away... Yeah!! The backwards plan worked.
Reach there only to discovered that there is nobody there... so are we late or are we early?
Of cos we are early... muwahaha....Sat down, rested and we ate again...

This time it's the Hakka Yong Dao Hu.


The mee is nice...


Waited for sometime before the 2nd group came back... followed by the rest..
And then we had a bad news... Desmond from the NTU riding team had an accident along the NSH.Seems like he was knocked from behind in a hit-n-run accident. We found out that the vehicle is from Kelantan. Not much damage to him except for some scratches and concussion. Luckily some kind Singaporean stopped and bring him back to SGH.

Done with the dinner and off I make my way back to SG.

It's gonna be awhile before I go touring again..

Total distance covered today - 558km


If you want to know how much does 558km cover, take a look at this map.


Pagoh Challenge 3.. Will you be there again next year?