Wonderful Saturday...

Had breakfast at Cindy's, last day before the couple go for a loooooog vacation in the US, met Weng Kae, he's doing fine and I'm truly happy for him. I taught him English, he taught me determination. After breakfast, Dad dropped me and Uncle Kim Kooi to collect the GTV, so I could help him drive his Charade elsewhere.

I went to 3 different workshops and saw these;







...and I was in the GTV while visiting these places this morning! I should invest in a phone with a better camera, I think I should.

Afternoon at the office was dull and frustrating. Had chicken rice lunch at Bak Gong, then went home, slept dead till 2000, woke up, bathed, had dinner, then headed out for yumcha. Finally got to speak with Jiet Hou the first time in 11 years, and met Liek Yek again after 6 years. Breakfast with old schoolmates come Sunday morning.

Copying Farid, iHappy :D

Home, again!

Yes, I'm home again after spending 2 awesome days up at Cameron Highlands! Haven't been up in ages! Everything was so fun and awesome it felt like it was only this morning I went up, time passed so quickly! Well, anyway, everything was fun except for the part about dead skin flaking off my sunburnt back, it was farking irritating, fortunately I've gotten rid of most of it this morning. The past week has been super awesome, so many new sights and experiences, but home feels way way way more awesome. Gotta prepare to go out for dinner with Uncle Choo Seng soon!

Home!

Yay! Back home at last! Thailand was awesome! Reached home at about 1am, unloaded stuff, cleaned house, bathed at slept at about 4am, and I'm not done unpacking yet. Super busy at the office now with insane amount of skin flaking off my back!

Hoarding parking spaces :D

Got the V230 back from the painters 2 days ago, CKO did a really good job with it, the paint was super smooth and shiny, the finish on the panel under the doors was great, and they even gave the wheel wells a new coat of tar! Excellent job for a reasonable price!

Tomatoship in opera!!

Yes, all friends from graphic & interior design, it's our favourite "uncle" Jason Phuah doing the opera! Who would have thought? I'd always thought his only performance is squirting whisky from the piercing hole in his chin :D




.
.
.
.
.
Btw, in case dimwitted you hadn't spotted him yet, he's the one in red bearing all those flags, he's the main player! Geng leh? I must say I'm impressed, I think he actually did very well considering the short amount of time he got to practise, from now on I shall respect "uncle" more, LOL!

Saturday

Saturday was a busy day. I woke up early and played the GT4 while waiting for Bro and Sis to get ready to go out for breakfast. Anybody ever tried playing in B-spec mode in Gran Turismo 4? It's that mode where you become team race chief and direct a virtual driver to go steady, fast, when to overtake or pit in a race etc etc. Doing this enables you to win those annoying 25 laps of 8-minute runs around the Nurbugring or 300 miles around Laguna Seca races while you read a comic or trim your toe nails. Oh, and you can also speed races up to 3x that way, so a 3 hour race will only waste 1 hour of your life. But you know what? It's farking lame. Please, B-spec driver, I installed nitrous in the car, USE IT! When I said overtake, overtake, don't bump into the car ass nearest to you and slide off into the closest chicane! 3 laps of Tsukuba and not even one move up the positions? And I seriously don't understand how the computer has to screw up at an exact spot, everytime, like the Cizeta Moroder spinning out before the long straight in Sarthe (fortunately, it was the opponent everytime, I'm never ever gonna bring a Moroder to Sarthe, or El Capitan, or Laguna Seca, thanks for the heads up. Moroder + Sand = Death), or those stupid Triumph Spitfires fishtail in Motegi (you think you're in Ebisu with your Silvias ar?), Lupos are lame, they like to choku-dori away the first 3 minutes and build sand mounds in the chicanes for the next 3 minutes in Nurbugring. OK, so that was just a game, but it helped me feel a bit cranky, in readiness of what shall come next.

Went for curry mee hoon breakfast at Cindy's, it was great. Just when I was feeling happier, I started the car and felt.. no aircon, no power-steering, and, NO BRAKES! Opened the hood, saw the broken distributor belt, yanked it out, and drove back to the office to drop everyone off. I then picked up some new rims and drove straight to the car hospital again :( I'm glad I dropped everyone off at the office, having 5 people in your car when your only means of stopping is a handbrake that hardly bites is very scary. Uncle Kim Kooi picked up Mom, Dad, Bro & Sis in his GTV (suffer khau khau in the miniscule backseats :D ) and sent them to the market for groceries, they then took the bus home.

I spent the morning busybodying around the workshop and being a nuisance, peeking inside old Peugeots, Citroens, Jaguars, Fiats (I love this place) and there was even a Honda City Cabriolet that day, was loud as hell for it's small size. Jaguar V8 engines are huge, and they're tall, it's a wonder they fit into the low-slung hood at all. The Xantia.. it was at the workshop Monday, then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, then Saturday too, I think it misses its' brethen at the workshop a bit too much.

Fitting the new rims on the Multipla was a bit exasperating; the offset was off and the wheels sit further into the wheel wells now, the rear tyres are only about 5-6mm away from the wells, and the front absorber is within 13-14mm of peril from the front tyres. The brake calipers, damn kan cheong, 2mm, maybe less, if ever there was super tight fitment, this would be pretty close. We checked for rubbing when steering the front wheels, and nothing has rubbed, yet, we loaded the car with parts and let Mun Hoe drive the Multipla out to get the exhaust pipe fixed. Maybe the darn diesel engine's too loud to start with, it didn't sound any noisier without the pipes :p

After the Xantia's gotten a new belt, I went off for some errands at our workshop grounds. Uncle Kim Kooi was at Uncle Cheong's place, checking out the progress on his newly-acquired Charade. I think he should drop a Kelisa engine in there; one more camshaft and bits of modern engineering should do wonders for the light and nimble Charade, I have a lot of respect for Charades :) Uncle Weng Kar & Uncle Wai came back from lunch soon enough so I asked, and got the Walzflex too! It's in worst condition that I thought it was; some buttons and dials are crooked, but I should be able to make it good, leather's all dead though. Had lunch with Uncle Kim Kooi, Uncle Cheong and Aunt Ying, their grandchildren are freakin adorable, hadn't got time to play with them lately as they're always asleep whenever I visit lately, but both wanted me to carry them when I asked who wants a lift! So cute! Lunch was great, the braised rice and eggs were very good, I'm going back for more soon!

And yes, the Multipla's finally back, with new rims!
Looks real good from this angle because you can't see the weaksauce offset.


I thought these 3-spoke designs only work on K-cars. I'm wrong. I think the rims go really well with the Multipla, maybe because it's shaped like a K-car too, but Honda center-hubs, how lame no? If Dad decides to keep this car and fix it up, I'll fix that stupid offset and center-hubs if it's the last thing I ever do for this car. I felt so sorry whenever I see the Multipla sitting in a corner, all dusty and greasy in the workshop, the bodywork's been damaged a bit by the stupid tow-truck driver, I was so saddened by it's condition that at times I couldn't bear to look at all and turned my back to it at the workshop, but seeing it at least clean and shaded at home now makes me a bit happier. Need to stop anthropomorphizing cars so much.


Btw, been sleeping and napping here on Saturday and Sunday, fun!! It's raining everyday, and I have a sleeping bag, blanket, and 4 pillows in there, super cozy, I think I'll do this more often too! Camping in the garden can take mundane off weekends :D

Dad's Birthday!

Finally got my laptop adaptor back, thanks to Uncle Kim Kooi for getting it fixed for me, and the new one hasn't even arrived yet! Anyway, now that I can use my laptop as much as I please again, it's back to blogging!

Dad's birthday fell on last Tuesday, we'd initially planned for dinner at 1919, but since there were quite some friends at the office when I got back, we just switched venue to Sin Poh Poh. When we arrived, most of them are already a bit tipsy since they've been drinking all afternoon, so naturally, some of them have scurried away after leaving the office and didn't turn up for dinner!!




Thanks to Uncle Juan for dinner, we had quite a meal, and to top it all we have 2 cakes! My tummy is swelling, fast!

Keep your eyes peeled for this R34 Skyline GT-R!

Yes, pleading to the few people who actually read my blog at all; a friend's car has been stolen, and he needs all the help he can get to recover it.

By Russ on November 15th, 2008 5:30 am:
"First of all I would like to thank Tom for placing this notice up so quickly, and to Remus as well.
Now, I want to make this clear that there is a RM52,000 (USD15,000) cash reward for anyone who can help me get my car back.

If you have any contacts or know of anyone or friends in the shipping line, customs, port authorities whom can locate and stop the shipping process, inform the police, help stop my car from being shipped out, the cash reward will be yours.

If you know anyone at the border checkpoints to Thailand also, there might be a chance of it moving across the border.

Personally I feel that the car will be shipped out, as the car was stolen whole with no damage left from the crime scene. And if it is shipped, it should be by container. Anyone with information on shipping especially with the regards to container shipping, please help.

The chassis number is: BNR34-004751
The engine number is: RB260725904
The registration number is: JHM 35

Once again, it is a blue Nissan Skyline GTR.

Please contact Nicole (Russ' wife) at 012-6900120 if you do see the car.

Should the car be found almost bare and stripped down, there is still a reward of RM30,000. So please, help me find my car."

Truthfully, I think the odds of getting the car back in one piece is low, but I'm still wishing you do get it back unscathed, good luck Russ.

Black thingies hate me!

Laptop adaptor died on me again, that's the 3rd one now! Ordered a new one, not getting it until Saturday, @#$%^&!!!! Lately, all the black things are breaking down on me, laptop, car, camera, PS2, damn!

Birthdays!

Been busy again lately (I seem to say this a lot, but it's true!!) and I've been going out a lot, so here's a jot for my own reference :D


Anna's birthday falls on 1st of November, and so we had a gathering of sorts at MP on Saturday evening. Anna and Yip had lots of friends over that night, and we actually took up 3 tables! I was super-stuffed that night; took lots of food, but it turned out nobody else wanted what I picked, so I had to stuff em all down myself. Hmrrpph, from now on I shall be selfish and only pick food for myself, cehhhhhhhh :(


3rd of November was Zheng Wei's birthday, so the gang planned a simple dinner and celebration for him in Ipoh Garden East. I'll admit I suck; I've passed the diner countless times and have been there twice, but I still know not the name of it, it's located right behind Sky Corner though :p I arrived late after work, picking Sis up, bank, dinner with family and yada yada, so I only got to spend slightly more than an hour with the group before everybody left. Anyway, it was great meeting them again, after 2 weeks, sure felt a lot more like 2 months!

Giant Lego Man found washed up on a beach!

Soooo... apparently a second giant Lego Man has been found ashore at Brighton...

ME WANTS A GIANT LEGO MAN TOO!!!!!