"Macross Frontier: SMS Skull Squadron!"

For a long time I've been observing the price and availability of the last member of the SMS Skull Squadron which was missing from my collection: Luca's RVF-25. Prices fluctuated between RM750 to RM550 at one time. But maybe I waited too long, until they began disappearing from the market. What the hell, during my trip back to Melaka for Suwei's wedding, I went to Robot Master at Dataran and just swipe RM700 *cough cough*... just imagine it as a Xmas present for myself~~~

Anyway, here's a first look at it:




The unique part of Luca's valkyrie is the radome:




It can spin and open as well

More significantly with Luca's arrival, SMS Skull Squadron can fly together now!!



"Flying" on the apartment floor :P



My fav pic~~ :D Full review of RVF-25 to come...

"The Wedding Part 4: Finale"

Wow! Must be surprised to see this post I bet :D This Dec 26 will be the First Anniversary of our wedding so fittingly, this is the conclusion to the Wedding post, started one whole year ago.

After the dinner session, we stayed back at the restaurant to settle the bill. The amount collected from the ang pow was enough to cover the bill, the liquor and the services of the Video and Cameraman. All tired and relieved after the very long day, all we could think of was to lie down in bed and sleep! Ah, but there was another surprise to be had...

Wife was the first one to enter our house. Suddenly she shouted "Why your room is so messy?!!" Ok, I'm not exactly the tidiest person around, but I didn't think I left it in a mess... but when I saw it, there was this sinking feeling that the night was going to get a whole lot longer-- our house had just been burgled! Our clothes, bag and stuff were thrown all over the place. Same in the other rooms, but the main target was my room. I saw my wallet which had RM600, on the bed, emptied. My old Sony camera which I had intended to give to Sis, was also missing. Even my old perfume was gone. Fortunately, VERY fortunately, I decided to bring my Wedding ring to the dinner.

We went around searching what was taken; both my brother and sister's laptops were gone, the Guess watch which I bought for my mum from US was gone, her handphone was gone, some ang pow which relatives gave when they came to my house before the dinner was gone. Come to think of it, luckily I brought my company laptop to the restaurant to play the Wedding DVD. We estimated the total losses to be about RM20k.

My Bro and I went to the police station to make a report. The best thing was that the police officer said that we were the 4th house to be robbed that night. Must be a syndicate going around targeting people's houses during weddings because they know no one will be around. Even neighbours. I messaged a few of the Gang to tell them the news. What a way to end the night... in the police station! The police came over an hour or so later to take pictures and try to find fingerprints. Apparently, the robbers came in from my kitchen window and left by the door. Amazing.

I was so dead-beat tired that I just lied down and slept on my mom's bed. The next day, my relatives came over and we all got a little paranoid staying in the house. Would the thief strike again? After this incident, Mom installed a metal grill to protect the kitchen window. She was pretty upset about the watch. Well, material things can be bought again. Most importantly, no one was hurt.

Ok, that's it! Despite that minor blip, I will always look back fondly to 26 Dec 2009. Thanks to all my family and friends for making it the happiest day of my life! ^_^

P.S. Darn, I gotta get the Video edited and uploaded-- lets hope it doesn't take another year to do that! :P

"Su Wei's wedding!"

No updates this weekend; going back to Melaka to attend Su Wei's wedding! Signing off~~

"Beijing 2010: Day 2 Part 1"

Our first adventure in Beijing would be the visit to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and Beihai Park. After hotel's free breakfast, we took the subway to Tiananmen East stop.

We came out of the underground tunnel and reached Tiananmen Square. Opposite the road was our first glimpse of the Tiananmen Gate.

There are 2 guards standing still in these platforms.



Chairman Mao's portrait hangs over the gate.

The square is huge and holds the crowd easily. One thing though, you can't miss the heavy presence of police officers everywhere. Not surprising, considering this was the venue of a few uprisings in China's past.

Monument of the People's Heroes



Very large projector screen!



Not much to the place, so we went across the street.



Long stream of people going in. And it's a Monday :P



Beyond the Tiananmen Gate is the massive Meridian Gate.




Practice marching...

This is the last point where it's free. Beyond this gate, we need to get the tickets to the Palace Museum.

Next: Inside the Forbidden City!

"Beijing 2010: Day 1"

Why Beijing?

In fact, why travel at all? Haha... you can guess it's due to Wife's unhappiness that we haven't gone anywhere for a long time. It's not that I don't like to travel; I love seeing new places! However, the Wedding wiped out a substantial amount of my savings. But after months of scraping and saving, we finally got back into a healthy zone.

Initially we were thinking of going somewhere in South East Asia, in particular I wanted to see Angkor Wat but she wasn't too keen about that. Then SA said his honeymoon would be in Hong Kong. So I did a little research but couldn't come up with the "pull factor" to bring me there. It's a shopping paradise for sure, but something was just missing. Wife's sister suggested that we go to Shanghai as there was a World Expo going on at that time. Still the "pull" wasn't there...

Then I recalled earlier this year, another colleague went to Beijing for a business trip. He was asking which part of the Great Wall should he visit. From there it sort of made sense; if this was going to be my first time to China, why not go straight to the capital? You would be spending just as much going to Shanghai or Hong Kong anyways... Ok, with that set, we visited several tour agencies to get the typical itinerary of Beijing.

Initially, my plan was to just follow the tours because it would be so simple: no planning needed, no reading required, just follow the guide and they'll take care of everything. That's what people usually do when they go to China, rite? But I kept getting this nagging feeling that maybe following the tour wouldn't be such a good idea. Yes, they'll bring you to the attractions, but it's mostly touch-and-go and you'd be spending a lot of the time in tourist shops instead.

Still it did not occur to us yet that we should go on our own. Until one fine day, I was chatting with my lady boss and she said she was going backpacking... in JAPAN. I was like..."Wow... do you speak Japanese?". She said nope, but that wasn't stopping her from spending two weeks there. And that's the "push factor"-- JUST DO IT! So I bought Lonely Planet's Beijing City Guide and spent the next weeks planning for the trip.

Many people were like "You're not following a tour in China?" and "Have you thought about it (again)?", really made us nervous. In fact, two days before leaving, we were having sleepless nights worrying! Wife summarized the feeling perfectly: "How come people go for holiday to enjoy but we're suffering...?" Haha... either way on the 21 Nov, we were at Penang Airport with all the butterflies in our stomach!

Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong.


Luckily they served breakfast fast because we were hungry already


Chicken rice


Pork rice

The flight from Penang to HK was uneventful. But once we boarded the connecting flight via DragonAir, I suddenly felt the excitement building up: all those months of reading and planning and we were finally heading to Beijing!

Sunset

Beijing Capital Airport was really MASSIVE. We cleared immigration and took a taxi to our hotel. Taxis charge by meters in Beijing and are very reliable. The Capital Airport was rather some way out of town so the taxi bill came out to RMB 100+.

Sunworld Hotel... not too bad.


After unpacking, we went searching for dinner and found this shop serving Taiwan food.


Set meal usually comes with rice, vege, meat and soup.


Rice noodles. It was a pretty satisfying meal, though a bit on the oily side.


Coke


Cozy inside the shop. Outside, the temperature was pretty cold, but still manageable.

After the meal, we went back and had a good rest. The next day the adventure starts with Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and Beihai Park!

"Hectic days!"

After coming back from Melaka, was bombarded with work and more work. Thankfully, the weekend is here, but tomorrow I will be attending a colleague's wedding at Pantai Remis! Really hectic days~~

And I'm sure the Gang are anticipating the next big gathering on 18 Dec: it's Suwei's wedding!! Already bought the bus tickets back to Melaka... gosh, so excited!! I've known her since the Parkson working days way back in 1998/99, so she's like a sister to me. Very happy to see that she's getting married (finally) ^_^ I'll be bringing my whole camera equipment back; hope to get some memorable shots for the event :)

Talking about pictures... the photos from the Beijing 2010 trip are currently being posted in Facebook first, before posting them in this blog; no, it doesn't mean the blog has become less important. There are lots of 'side stories' and commentaries I wish to add to the pics, and that can only be done effectively in the blog! ;)

Also, I'm gearing up for the purchase of the desktop after the old one broke down nearly 2 years ago! Budget around RM3K for it, hopefully can do as 0% installment for a year :D

The year is drawing to a close and 2011 is coming. How did the year go by? I have lots to say, so lets leave the analysis for the next post...

"Back to Melaka"

Going back to Melaka for the long weekend, back to Penang on Tuesday!