Billionaire Taximan

Hello.. I'm Sgt Zulkarnain.

This blog entry is not gonna be funny..

itz a Tribute..

I'm back from 2 weeks of Reservist duties.. for the IMF/World Bank event..

for that 2 weeks, I forgot that I'm actually a Flight Steward..

It was a non-stop work for 12 days straight.. practically without any off-days.. and 12 hrz each day.. except for the first day.. which was 18 hrz..

and I'd crash on my bed in exhaustion every night.. dreaming of basements and carparks and having to rush through this and that..

and on the first nite.. I couldnt even lift up my hand to eat the nasi briyani that my mom bought for me..

Ammalia said that Police Reservists are lazy..

yepz.. normally we are.. and we take pride in being lazy..

but not this time tauuu.. I think whatever laziness we have are being paid back with the IMF duties..

itz like this..

when we get enlisted as a National Service Policeman.. we are si-beh on..

when we ROD (or ORD as u guys call it now).. we come back for Reservist.. thinking that we will be Super Damn-On still..

then u join the old fellas coz u aint got no choice..

and if u are Super On.. u kana bilis.. nobody wants to talk or work with u..

coz Police Reservist is supposed to be a holiday..

so u end up Relek Slowjack..

then u get old.. become laochao..

the newbies come in oso want to try to be Super On..

u tell them.. relek lar brudder.. apa mau On.. lu Reservist siak..

ok.. and so the cycle goes on.. the new fella gets old and he becomes like that too..

but not this time man..

itz Police Payback time..

everyone become Super Damn On..

and come to think of it.. I like it much better this way..

everyone who came in did their part.. and more..

one of my Reservist mates said to me just now.. it feels weird not having to Fall-in and withdraw arms..

and I felt weird just now walking ard without a gun at my side..

not that I like guns though.. thatz one of those things abt being a policeman that I hated most..

I started the Reservist being in a bad mood.. coz of something that screwed up and I ended up not doing what I was trained for..

put it this way.. I was overtrained for the duties..

so I was pissed coz my time and money was wasted coz of the extra trainings..

then came the deployment..

and we went to our locations and the troop started working..

and the more I saw the way they worked.. the more pride I had to be able to work with them..

and especially coz I started off the duties being so so extremely freaking negative.. I have to say that this is the best Reservist that I had done.. and the men were the best I came across with..

and the working relationships between the Reservist officers and the Regulars were fantastic..

Here are the guys (and a girl)



Clockwise.. from top-left.. the fellas that, to me, are the best of Reservist officers..

Including 4 fantastic regular Police Officers..

my tribute to them..

ASP Mustafa, Insp Patrick, Sgt Lam, Cpl Chin, Cpl Foo, Cpl Jeffry, Sgt Taufick, Cpl Azman, SC Jerry Boy, Cpl Muliadi, Cpl Shamsir, WSgt Fionie, SC Benneth, Sgt Tew, SC Gafur, Insp Leslie, Sgt Weihan, SC Benjamin, Sgt Wee, SC Ng, me, Cpl Peter, Sgt Weiliang, Sgt Ali, SC Faruk..

Middle from left.. Cpl Chong, Sgt Amin..



Clockwise, from left..

Taufick, Foo, Ali, Me, Weiliang, Insp Leslie..

and so.. yesterday.. even though we were looking forward to the end of the stint.. I think all of us were sad that the event ended and we dont get to work with each other anymore..

and to the best Senior Officer I had ever had the chance to work with.. I salute ASP Mustafa.. with all his thoughts and care and concern for his men.. and the tremendous workload that I saw him doing personally.. and still diligently doing all other policing duties.. and I know that for a fact, on his watch.. the place where we were guarding were one of the safest place u could ever be in..

went for coffee and supper after the end of the final duty yesterday at Adam Rd with most of the troop..

and left at 2am..

and got home at 4am..

it took me 2 hours to get home.. in a cab..

I didnt fall asleep.. at least.. not during the journey..

and the taxi driver didnt lose his way..

but it took 2 freaking long hours..

coz the Taximan talked and talked and talked and talked non-stop..

We said goodbyes and shook hands 3 times..

and a second later, he continued talking..

He told me.. he's going to be a Billionaire..

yep yep.. that was what he said..

and I made the mistake of asking him of his plans..

He told me he wanna write a book.. abt driving..

the techniques of proper driving..

And he explained to me things that I had known..

and even drew diagrams..

I prevented myself from falling asleep by biting my tongue..

on and on and on and on..

And he told me that I'm the second best driver he had seen..

and he had never even seen me driving..

and I told him that he was wrong.. even so to prove to him by telling him that I had been charged in court before and was given 12 demerit points..

but still.. I'm the second best..

He said that he can teach a person driving better than Schumacher..

and he kept on saying that he's the best in this and that..

no wonder I'm the second best..

that should make Schumacher the 3rd best driver..

I didnt hear most of the stuffs he said coz my mind was already asleep by then.. just that my eyes were open and my head went on auto-agreeing nodding mode..

I couldnt even cut thru his sentences to tell him that I'm gonna go off..

then again, I didnt want to be demoralising coz he was so excited abt what he's gonna do.. and he was actually a nice person.. just that my sleep means to me more than nice ppl do..

2 freaking hours..

He could have started making the first forty of his billions of dollars if he had taken other passengers to their destinations..

But then again.. what is forty bucks from the 2 hrz he wasted compared to the billions he's gonna make anyway..

I'd be happy for him though if he make it through.. and I do hope that he makes at least a hundred grand with his plans..

even Kiyosaki was broke and slept in his car before he started making his millions..

my new roster is out.. and yeyyyyyy.. I have a Melbourne coming up..

time to see the 4 boys and the Princess!

and so.. I'm gonna be back flying from Sunday onwards..

Signing Off..

Flight Steward Zulkarnain.

Of Ghosts and Other Ghastly Stories..

Kum Kum..

boleh tumpang sembahyang?

ok.. had a chat with Nur abt ghosts recently.. and as promised, Nur.. my opinions abt it..

anyway.. as far as I remember.. Kum Kum stories circulated wayyyyy back... when I was in secondary school..

so my personal opinion is.. Kum Kum was the creation of some parents..

so.. as the urban legends go.. She's supposed to be a woman who was so conscious of her looks..

but then again.. that sounds like any other women..

ok.. anyway.. in her pursuit of better looks, she and Anakin Skywalker had turned to the Dark Side.. and things had turned horribly wrong.. and both of them had turned ugly..

for Kum Kum.. there was salvation.. if she could suck the blood of young virgins.. and since she was cursed, she cant say the full Islamic greeting.. Assalamualaikum.. and ended up just by pretending to greet in a rhyme.. Kum Kum..

not much of a poet, I must say..

anywayyyyyyy.. so far no one that I had ever known had seen Kum Kum personally.. not that anyone wanted to..

and no virgins that I know.. had gone missing or died mysteriously..

Kum Kum's legends had started in Malaysia.. and brought over to Singapore in 1987.. before the introduction of Biometrics passport..

I wonder how she crossed the Causeway still..

If she had taken her picture before she turned ugly.. wouldnt she had been arrested by the Immigration authorities?

so.. my opinion remains..

the ideas of some Parents..

or prolly it was even the Police..

some Parents might have been pissed with their daughter's late nite activities.. back in the Disco era.. the 80s.. and so they created a myth..

There is a cursed ugly woman who goes around sucking the blood of Virgins..

so then.. the Virgins stayed at home coz they were too scared to take the risk of getting their blood sucked..

and the Non-Virgins stayed at home coz they didnt want anyone to know that they are not virgins..

so the guys stayed at home coz therez no girls to go out with..

no late night activities..

crime rate dropped..

sale of alcohol went down..

cigarette taxes went up..

simple economics..

not that I dont believe in spirits and ghosts..

I do..

not many of us guys can go thru 2 1/2 yrz of National Service without having to experience it at least once..

I was in the Police Force.. so we had to go out at nite patrolling while most of u were asleep.. so we definitely would have stories to tell..

my mom saw a Penanggal when she was living in her old kampung in Changi..

thatz the fella who had black magic and could dislodge his head and intestines from his body.. for whatever reasons, I wouldnt know..

that happened a lot in the old kampung days, where therez no cable TV and no Internet.. so my theory would be that these fellas were really damn bored to do such a thing..

last yr.. in Melbourne, when I was outside the house smoking.. at abt 10pm.. my then-4-yr-old nephew, Wawa came out to me and asked me why do I go out of the house when there's a hantu looking at us..

he pointed to some shrubs and even mimicked the outstretched hands of the hantu.. like Jiang-Shi.. the Chinese Vampire..

I dunno whether he really saw it or prolly just replaying what he saw on TV.. but it did freaked me out and I had quit smoking ever since..

yeah rite..

Toyols are famous in Malaysia especially.. but itz sometimes hard to distinct whether u lose money coz of Toyol or coz ur brother is high on crack..

the Pontianak is a Vampire.. the only Malay one made by Lestat..

in Islam.. there are Jins and Shaithans..

Ghosts are basically made up of these fellas.. and not some souls of dead ppl.. coz Islam does not support the theory of purgatory.. once u are dead, u remain in barzakh till Judgement Day.. and there's no way u can come out of the other world to haunt ur former mates..

why would a former human want to come back to haunt anyway.. if they could come back again, shouldnt they be chilling out at some cafes like the rest of us?

so basically.. ghosts do exist.. just that itz best not to bother them.. and just hope that they stay out of ur way..

let the unseen and unheard remain that way..

He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named..

anyway.. I just moved in to my brother's place.. and this house is known to be haunted.. and I had personally experienced some things here..

and the entire area around this blocks are known to be haunted..

and this blog was written in the same room that I was teased by HWMNBN.

The opinions expressed here are my own and in no way whatsoever represents the opinion of anyone else..

No ghosts or souls were harmed in the production of this blog..

Just got back from Taipei just now.. and while I was there, caught a show on Star Movies.. called Murder in the Hamptons..

A True Story..

It was abt this fella.. good looking, young and filthy rich.. got involved with this ordinary (meaning.. not rich.. like the rest of us) woman who was a real estate agent..

They fell in love and got married.. and she basically moved from being a housing agent to being a tai-tai..

He was handsome.. she was beautiful.. (or at least, the actress who portrayed her, was)

She was a perfectionist.. and so totally OBSESSED.. so badly that she restricts her husband from doing everything else.. even to have business makan meetings.. and dictated things that she wants him to do at home at at work..

so this poor soul.. who was a happily divorced FUCKING RICH (est at US$150 million) born-again bachelor had to go thru years and years of having a woman dictating him..

What I dont understand is..

why cant the women dictate just themselves? set on ur own goals and work towards ur own goal..

why impose it on the men?

Especially when u cross over to their lives.. and they dont control u.. so whatz the big fuss abt u wanting them to do things that YOU think is appropriate?

this poor idiot.. Ted Ammon.. was filthy rich.. so the wife got no reason to say that she wants him to do things perfectly so that he can be successful..

He was already successful..

And she was spending HIS money..

so basically.. the wife was a psycho..

Unfortunately.. therez a lot of girls who are like that.. and they dont realise it that they want the guys to do things that THEY want.. not what HE wants..

Some guys like to be dominated.. God bless their souls..

so be it..

but for most of us.. I think we guys have our own things to plan out.. and things to do.. and mistakes to make so we can learn from it on our own and not coz someone had cautioned us of the repercussions and therefore steer us away from doing it..

Girls.. live ur own life.. there are a lot of other ways to show care and concern rather than to try to dominate someone else's..

I'd rather die alone than live with a control freak..

That, by far.. is scarier than any ghosts..

and btw.. I didnt quit smoking..

and Ted Ammon was murdered.. by the new boyfriend of his wife after he filed for divorce..

and the Bitch died of cancer soon after..

Bad Hair Day

I have a problem with hairdressers..

or hairstylists as they would rather be called..

I'm very particular abt choosing hairstylists and when I come across a good one.. I'll patronize them regularly..

I get for them gifts from my flights.. coz itz hard to get a good hairstylist..

Abt 7 yrz back.. when I was in Far East Plaza.. and needed a haircut.. and when most of the hairdressers were full.. there was one which was empty..

Totally no customer.. and the place was hidden right at the 5th floor, at a corner where no one would see..

and the place was called Hair Explosion..

WTF?

Whoz hair exploded?

ok.. anyway.. I went in since there wasnt anyone there and I'm not patient enough to wait for a hairdresser anywhere else..

There was this Kakak, sitting.. looking bored, inside.. reading magazines..

and so.. she cut my hair..

and dammit.. my first favourite hairstylist!

yey..

Ok.. anyway.. out of a sudden.. after 2 yrz.. she closed shop.. and I had never seen her anywhere else after that..

So I went around looking for another hairstylist..

and came across one fella from Reds at Tampines.. Ivan..

so for 2 yrz i looked for Ivan.. who become my kaki in discussing about modified cars.. he got his VTi installed with a CR-V engine.. a rear wheel drive with a 4-wheel shaft..

ok.. nvm..

and one day.. Ivan left Reds..

dammit..

lost without a hairdresser again..

and I found Winnie at Reds at Plaza Singapura..

and for almost a year.. till Winnie left recently..

dammit..

I think I have this bad luck for Hairstylists.. they always leave the place..

but then again.. I have her number this time.. hehe.. so I can stalk my hairdresser at whichever salon she's at now and get her to cut my hair...

We became friends already anyway..

yeyyyyy..

ok ok.. so.. I didnt really have a bad hair day..

I just hate bad service at hair Salons..

was at Far East Plaza just now..

I went in to the first salon I saw.. SuperCuts..

whatever lar.. I thought if Hair Explosion can be good... so can this one..

asked the Malay girl at the counter whether would I have to wait or do they have a hairstylist free..

she told me that I didnt have to wait.. so I went inside and had my hair washed.. and waited..

and waited..

and waited..

for 45 mins..

coz the hairstylist is busy cutting another SEVERAL customer's hair at the same time..

MIGHT AS WELL TELL ME TO COME BACK IN 45 MINS RIGHT????

luckily the hairstylist was apologetic enough and did quite a good job lar.. old woman mah.. so I guess she have a lot of experience..

so after my hair was snipped to an extremely short hairstyle fit for a police officer.. I went to the counter to pay..

and the Malay girl was on the fone.. looking down on the table as she was talking.. prolly for some enquiries or something lar..

but dont tell me that she cant notice someone standing in front of her?

I timed her this time.. it took 7 mins of waiting.. just standing at the counter waiting for her to finish her call or for her to look up..

and several minutes later, another customer stood beside me.. waiting for her too..

so after 7 mins of my time wasted in front of the counter, the same hairstylist came.. and told her off.. quite sarcastically, I must say..

WTF?

You on the fone with someone that requires all ur brain power that you cant even do simple transactions meh?

and I thought girls pride themselves as being able to multitask?

of course.. we are talking abt hardworking girls lar..

*sigh*

Itz hard to get nice hair salons..

Reds is good..

but itz always full..

and I'm not awake early enough to go for a haircut during the non peak period..

there was once.. in Tampines Mall.. Reds was full.. so I went a few doors away to Hair Mechanics..

I swear.. the next time I'll visit the mechanics would be for my car engine.. not for my hair..

dammit..

there wasnt much customers inside.. so I thought.. ok lar..

while cutting my hair.. the hairstylist told me that my hair could do some treatment with some tonic..

I said.. ermz.. ok.. noted.. but I dont have time to do it..

and dunno what he did.. it took so long..

when I was about to pay.. I was shocked to see that the bill came up to $120

for a $30 haircut?

WTF?

I enquired.. and apparently this fella had given me the hair tonic treatment..

WTFTFTFTF?

I didnt say YES to *THAT*

wasted my bloody time and money.. I didnt even want ur tonic.. and till now I dont see a difference in my hair..

And the tonic was $80..

and that means that the haircut was $40??

He told me coz that he's the director of the place.. I received a DIRECTOR'S CUT..

oh wow.. like I'm soooooooooo fucking impressed..

I paid and left.. and never will go there again..

another place where I wont go to anymore even if itz the last salon in Singapore.. and I'd rather go to Sri Dewa..

The salon at the 3rd floor at Eastpoint..

the hairstylist is an old gay man..

not that I have problems with gay ppl.. just that it makes him outstands a lil bit lar.. I thought gay ppl should be better in these kinda thing.. and old means experienced mah..

dammit.. he turned my head left right centre like as if I am on anesthetics and got no feelings in my neck one..

felt like I'm in those 70s mamak barber shops where they would even shave ur moustache for u..

rough..

and those places are better.. coz they give u a back massage after the haircut tau..

*sigh*

gone are the days of the mamak barbers..

but back to the story.. the fella was so rough.. I'm thankful that I'm not gay and had to be *HIS* partner..

erkz..

and after the haircut..

I ended up looking like an alien..

so.. never again..

SuperCuts weren't that bad lar.. just that the Malay receptionist girl was so incompetent..

so for that I shall avoid that place..

anyway.. I'm back from Amsterdam...

didnt do much on that flight..

and chatted with Desmond, the other steward.. till abt 4am.. abt nerdy stuffs..

itz nice to have a nerd on the flight too.. when u can talk abt processors and logic gates and transistors and memory allocations..

I'll be doing one more flight to Taipei on Wednesday, then off for Reservist for 2 weeks..

I'm looking forward for that though.. to slack ard for 2 weeks..

just that I think I'm allergic to Police uniform coz I get sleepy whenever I don it..

To Serve and To Protect..

cheh.. like real..

was at Riaz yesterday with Wily.. and at the next table, there was this family with some family friends..

they looked depressed..

I dont think they are depressed.. just that they have that kinda look..

Even the friend who was with them.. a girl in her late teens or early 20s.. looked bored and depressed.. and they were sitting down staring at each other, smoking and looking depressed..

even the baby looked depressed..

some ppl just have that kinda look..

I have a stern look if I dont smile..

but if I do, I look fat..

so I'd rather look stern..

anyway.. was at Riaz with Wily again just now.. nerd talks again..

and anyone here have experience with DMA on UART chips?

any hackers and nerds around?

if u do.. call me.. let'z make lots of money.. legally..

Evil Skanival..

Hear Ye Hear Ye..

I'm updating my blog now..

ermz.. ok

firstly..

SINGAPORE IDOL SUCKS..

how did Nurul Maideen get kicked out while Joakim Gomez and Paul Twohill remained?

I had never been a Singapore Idol fan.. didnt watch the first season.. didnt watch the second till just now.. and the clips that I saw were all from youtube..

AND I SERIOUSLY THINK THAT JOAKIM GOMEZ AND PAUL TWOHILL CANT SING FOR NUTS..

even if u put a gun on their heads and force them to sing a tune.. they cant..

by having the two of them this far is seriously a joke to Singaporean talent.. it shows that we are *THAT* desperate for contestants..

how did Mathilda get kicked out anyway?

and the Idol *IS* abt vocal talents.. not about looks.. how else did Kurt "The Hobbit" Nilsen had gone from Middle Earth Idol to win the World Idol?

*sigh*

watever lah.. I'll be listening to Ska anyway..

but itz ok though.. as long as Hady Mirza wins in the end..

a random pic from last week.. at Yishun Dam..

and kids.. please.. dont try this at home..



Manazil riding hands free on a GSX 1000cc..

but of course.. the bike wasnt moving.. he didnt even have the key to it..

I just got back from Johannesburg, South Africa, abt 24 hrs ago.. but this time, not much pics were taken.. coz I didnt do much during the stay..

so for those of u who wants to see pictures of South Africa, click . here . for those taken on my previous trip there..

I had the perception before I first step to Africa years back, that itz a place full of wild animals.. and it was hot and dusty..

ermz.. itz 5 degrees low and 20 degrees at max in midday..

so itz not hot.. not at all..

and it was freezing at nite.. itz turning into Spring soon in South Africa.. with a reversed season like Australia..

and therez no wild animals, unless u head down to the Safari..

and itz not even close to being dusty..

in fact.. South Africa is so modern and so clean and so beautiful that u cant make it look bad even if u try to..

here's a snapshot of the view from my hotel room..



too bad that itz one of the most dangerous places in the world..

a world of irony..

u get beautiful cars.. beautiful houses.. surrounded by electrically-charged fences to prevent ppl from climbing into the premises..

such a waste.. beauty with so little security..

caught a preview of a car show at the mall..

Modena 360.. Porsches..



S2000.. this is a beauty..



and a Lotus Elise.. displayed right where it belongs.. at Proton..

basically thatz it abt Johannesburg.. I spent the day walking ard the mall with Faisal and watching Pirates of the Carribean at the movies..

here's the pics from the Skanival gig at GasHaus @ Bugis, on 13th August..

we didnt really confirmed on playing for the gig till the very last minute.. coz I didnt get to change my flight to get an off day for it.. so I finally managed to utilise my annual leave for a day.. just to play in that gig..

effort tau..

but not as much as Bee from Peas and Oats.. coz she came back from London just a few hours before the gig.. and she looked so stoned as if she drank a barrel of beer..

but her voice was fantastic..



Bee The Singing Stewardess with Peas and Oats..

and u know whatz the suckiest thing?

besides StillRivers, I think this is the only other good band that sounded professional.. and no one responded to them..

*sigh*

but then again.. I didnt really watch any other bands coz I was busy slacking outside the pub..

reminds me of another gig in Kolam Ayer CC several months back..

even Full Pledged Munkees had that kinda ovation..

which was none..

everyone was sitting down staring at the stage while FPM played!?

WTF?

that's as close to being a blasphemy!

the new generation of gig goers..

*sigh*

but then again.. if they can keep Gomez and Twohill in the Idol competition.. and Sylvester till the finals of the previous.. it shows the kinda sounds that Singaporeans like..

they like ppl who cant sing..

but then again.. StillRivers rocked!

We had a jamming session prior to the gig at Beat Merchant studio..

nice equipments and spacious room.. just that i'm not keen on playing the drums barefooted..

this is what happen during Mistaken Pirates jamming sessions..



ermz.. ok.. only Hamdy has this habit of doing weird things..



Pirates @ Zam Zam Restaurant after the jamming session.. just before the gig..

and btw.. if u want good Briyani Dam.. try Ramiza at either Changi Village or along New Upper Changi Rd, at the new Muslim coffeeshop at Hotel 81.. just across the road from Mak's Place..

just dont go into the hotel coz all the Pakciks hanging around the coffeeshop can see u..

wear a wig if u really need to..

or go wank somewhere..

like inside the Bird Sanctuary at East Coast Park..

can u believe it that some ppl do that in public anyway?

a friend of mine, Elizabeth.. who lives in Marine Parade said that she had spotted some ppl wanking inside the Bird Sanctuary.. and they wank even harder when a girl pass by..

WTH?

Bird Sanctuaries are for REAL BIRDS. the ones with FEATHERS and WINGS.

damn..

anyway.. we screwed up thru the gig.. but ok lar.. considering the fact that we didnt gig since January.. and since then had jammed only twice till a couple of days before this gig..

but I seriously had fun..

there wasnt any crowd.. I think I have more family members than therez an audience at Skanival..

Yazid tripped over my ride cymbal several times and it fell onto the floor tom.. and it was a good thing that Ogy from Full Pledged Munkees came up on stage to put it back..

Din didnt memorise the lyrics to the songs and still Ogy FPM and the Comic Strip drummer held up the lyrics for him to read while he sang..

the not-so-many ppl in the crowd moshed and banged into Shida and Umi and into the music stand that they used to hold the horn notes..

and for us trying to tangkap the Skalariak song Solo Vivir just a day before the gig didnt help.. and Din sang differently from the verse and I totally forgot how the song went after the chorus..

so the song stopped halfway..

and we didnt even realise that it was our last song till we stopped the song..

but we sure did have fun anyway.. I enjoyed this set more than the Skafests at Paradigm..

someone mentioned that I played like I was about to break the drum kit..

I guess I really did..



Yours, Truly..



Mr Kotai



our Horny section..



Mr Din and Mr Yazid



a bird's eye view..



Mr Manazil



Mr Yazid muka step lepas langgar cymbal.



and caught red handed trying to steal a mike stand..

Ogy from Full Pledged Munkees..

nampak tu muka bersalah..

Shark Attack..

I'm back.. to blogging..

as I had said to Nurizz.. I should just start blogging once a year.. since I dont feel like blogging much..

there had not been much to say recently anyway..

and she said that I suffer from Blogger's Fatigue..

heh..

thanx Nurizz for making it sounds so scientific..

but the real reason is..

MALAS..

ok.. I had included a comments tag at the bottom of the postings.. if it doesnt work, I'll remove it..

went jamming with the Pirates just now..

yey...

after so long.. we had a fantastic session just now..

I miss the band xia..

we had fun just now.. really had fun..

yey..

Pirates will be playing in a gig on Sunday at GasHaus.. tickets selling at $10 at the door..

the other bands that'll be playing on that day would be StillRivers and Peas And Oats..

the rest of the bands I dont recognise/cant remember.

Peas and Oats vocalist is in London now.. Bee, the Singing Stewardess..

and she's gonna land in Singapore on Sunday itself.. and going to the gig after that.. I just hope that she dont fall asleep while singing..

effort sey..

ok.. anyway... I just got back from Paris two days ago..

I remembered the first time I stepped into France.. my first words to myself..

I'm in The Land Of Eric Cantona..

and yeah.. Paris.. France.. the land of Eric Cantona, Zidane, and Alizee..

of course, Alizee is the most attractive and the best of the three..

for those who doesnt know who this gorgeous girl is.. click here

it's summer time in Europe right now.. and come next month when the fasting month starts.. itz a bad idea to do flights there..

Sahur will prolly ends at 3am..

and Maghrib will prolly come at 9pm..

this is the pic that I took outside my room window at 8.30pm..



I didnt do much in Paris except for lunch in Champs Elysees and went down to The Louvre..



Jezz, Me, Joleen and my Leading Stewardess, Azarina..

Joleen and Rina are leaving the team.. after 1 1/2 yrz together.. itz quite a sad flight to do knowing that it'll be their last flight with us..



the view from INSIDE the glass pyramid..

those of u who have heard of The Louvre would know that the glass pyramid is the most prominent mark of the Museum from the outside..



the Inverted Glass Pyramid from the inside..

if u dont know the significance of this, read Dan Brown's Da Vinci's Code..



the displays inside the museum.. we didnt go to see most of the exhibits.. just visited the necessary ones this time..

anyway.. I had covered all the wings in The Louvre several years ago...



a random pic of one of the statues.. Isis.

for those that doesnt know who she is..

she's the mystical Egyptian queen.. married to her BROTHER.. King Osiris.. during the times when incests were cool..

their mother was named Nut.. so u should know why the siblings end up getting married to each other..

Osiris was said to have been possessed by a playful, evil spirit.. and the only way to save the world, and his soul, was to cut him up into lots of pieces and scatter the body..

Isis went out in the middle of the night looking for the body parts of her brother-husband and sew them back together.. and found every part, except for one..

u go figure which part that is..

and according to the depiction by Anne Rice.. Isis and Osiris were later known as Akasha and Enkil.. the first vampires.. and the failure to find *THAT* important part of Osiris/Enkil leads to the fact that the remaining vampires have no human sexual desires..

blablabla..

ok..

back to The Louvre..

the IMPORTANT and famous residents of the museum..



The Winged Victory of Samothrace..



The Aphrodite.. Venus de Milo..

Greek's Goddess of Love..



the room where the Goddess now stands in..

the THE most important resident of all..

the MOST prominent mark of The Louvre from the inside..



an ugly looking woman called Mona Lisa..

sorry lar.. if she's real, and not a feminine self potrait of Da Vinci.. she's really an ugly woman..

photography is banned in the area.. and I managed to snap this pic before I was told that I cant.. and this is the best pic that I could get of her anyway..

after walking around the Louvre.. we walked along the Paris Beach..



the beach was featured in the Straits Times recently where they mentioned abt the authorities telling the French not to tan in the nude or be topless there anymore..

we couldnt see any nude or topless girls.. damn.. coz it was raining..

I think on a perfect hot Saturday afternoon, u could still get to see it.. telling the French not to tan in the nude would be like telling Singaporeans to stop eating chicken rice.



anyway.. this is the real pic of the "beach"..

itz not a real beach.. the Mayor decided to have this place 4 yrz ago for the Parisians who cant afford a holiday..

a Politician who thinks abt his ppl.. interesting..

rare.

maybe it was an election year..

it takes them 6 days to bring in the sand and to set this place up, and 48 hrz to remove it all..

and only for a month.. during August..

so they put in the sand, palm trees in pots, big umbrellas, shower points.. just to give it a sense of the real thing, just next to the river bank that runs across Paris..

after that, we headed down to Notre Dame.. again.. coz it was Jezz's first time to Paris..

basically.. thatz it abt Paris..

I was at my cousin's place in Johore last Saturday for my niece's wedding.. (not ShaSha.. she's only 2 1/2 yrz old.. but this is my cousin's 21 yr old daughter)..

so that makes 3 weddings in a month that I attended.. and I'm having a headache..

too many relatives at that wedding and too many ppl trying to matchmake me with someone they know..

I should just declare to them that I'm gay so they can stop all these nonsense..

but I didnt.. coz dowwan to spoil my mom's waterface mah..

and for the record.. I'm straight.



the weddings held in Malaysia is different xia.. u can see the neighbours of so many different races coming together and help..

real kampung style..

gotong royong still exist there.. in Singapore.. even ur own first cousins have to have an invitation card.



the Bride and Groom..

the groom is a nice fella.. had chilled out with me quite a number of times.. and a former skinhead turned nice guy..

I'd say that he's a soft spoken ex-skinhead..



one of the kompang fellas started the silat ceremony.. I have not seen this for ages coz I dont attend weddings..

and to think that I have another 2 more weddings to attend soon.. my ex-gf's wedding.. Noreen.. who asked me to come down before 2.30 coz her future husband is damn jealous of me coz we were together for a long time and coz I used to be very close to her family..

and the other wedding is Noris'..

Congratulations Noris!

now everyone is getting married and I'm still gay.



my 12 yr old nephew Arham (another cousin's son)

and this one is damn cute..

the Imam from the surau nearby..



Bulat siak..

and at one point of time he accidentally hit his specs while silatting.. and it went halfway across his face..

but his silat was good though.. just that I dont think it will do much during a real pendekar punya fight..

but he's a nice guy anyway.. so tak baik kutuk.. ish..

ok..

Random thoughts time..

things that I recently liked..

CROCS!

yey.. I love my Crocs.. coz they are DAMNED comfortable.. I dont care that u guys think that they look ugly and big and whatever..

itz really nice xia!

after wearing crocs, I can walk and walk and walk and walk and walk and walk and walk......

I feel like a walking Superman..

ok.. somemore..

my O2 XDA II mini.. 2nd hand.. but nice.. just that I have to get a separate wireless card.. but it works well now..

ok.. somemore..

my newly found favourite local band!

7 till Dawn..

saw the Alternatives band playing at Esplanade several months back, but couldnt catch the name of the band coz we arrived halfway thru the set.. but the vocalist was damn good..

and I had been trying to find out the name of the band ever since.. their originals were fantastic too..

one of the bands that I'd spend my money buying their CDs if they come out with an album..

and turned out to be that the vox also sings for Yazeid's band whom we came to support at Scape during the Tapestry gigs..

ok.. 7 Till Dawn.. if u guys get a chance to watch this band.. go.. they are really good..

my current favourite non-local band.. Alter Bridge..

a regrouped Creed with a new vocalist.. though they denied that they are a regrouped Creed..

and my favourite hangout place now..

Riaz Relax Corner at Eunos!

yey..

this place got a BIG yellow box and they close at 4.30pm.. and got Sheesha some more.. and a variety of food.. and the coffee is good..

yey..

ok..

for the things that I hate..

PARIS HILTON SINGING STARS ARE BLIND!

Dammit..

she should steer away from ska/reggae..

yucks..

made my hair stand..

ok..

for another bigger reason to hate..

overcharging Malay Lawyers..

I already hate lawyers.. now the Malay ones made it even worse..

my brother had migrated to Melbourne several years ago.. and now it comes to a time where we have to sell his house here in singapore.. so I had to sign as Power Of Attorney..

meaning, I take the responsibility of selling the house, signing the documents and so on.. though my mom is the real person doing it lah.. I just sign only..

so last yr, we went down to his Malay lawyer friend lah.. coz friend friend can at least not overcharge u, even if they dont give discount rite?

so we were charged $360 for him preparing the official documents to appoint me in the Power Of Attorney..

so after signing last yr, we didnt get to sell the house, but the only other copy of the document was given to HDB..

so now we are trying to sell the place again, and we needed the copy from him..

and he said that he had misplaced it.. cant find it in his office..

what the hell?

we went to another Malay lawyer, who quoted $350 for a new set of documents.. $10 dollars cheaper..

so, another person recommended this Chinese lawyer..

he charged us $180..

what the heck?

sometimes u want to help the Muslim professionals also no use.. end up the Malay lawyers like to live thru their reputation of being sharks..

and not like as if we pay more we get better service mah..

He misplaced the goddammned documents a year after.. and looking at the state of his office, itz not really so much of a wonder how it could happen..

u can misplace an entire 747 plane inside his office..

so.. the moral of the story is..

relek xua.. aku mama.

I think Indians make the best lawyers..

damn u John Grisham for making lawyers look so capable.