Shake Our hands to Win 10 Grand

10 grand. Yup JD, it really would have gone a long way... In case you are wondering what I'm talking about, I was one of the lucky radio listeners who had a chance to win 10 grand yesterday night. I guess there must have been close to 200 people who had a chance to win the grand prize in Red Fm's Shake Our hand to Win 10 Grand competition. The registration queue to get in to the bar 10 thousand buckaroos, 10 big ones. 10 Grand.*sigh* Oh what could have been :) Anyways, Congrats to the eventual winner Dewi Joan. Hope your hubby enjoys his anniversary dinner :P Man, but what a party it was! Redfm did not spare any expense. The finale for the competition was held at the Luna Bar, Pacific Regency Hotel Apartments. The view from the bar was fantastic! KL Tower from the poolside Did I mention that there was close to 200 people who attended the event? Crowd gathering before the night's proceedings The Stage is on the left, the crew was kinda afaid it would collapse under the weight of 200++ people.. It didn't ;) Everyone was whipped into a frenzy when JD and Dilly finally appeared on stage. JD 1/2 joked about keeping the money for himself...Hehehe The arrival of the dynamic duo on stage. In between the lucky draws and dinner, we were treated to a pole dancing exhibition. Kids don't try this at home. Did I mention that the view is fantastic? Taken from the bar at 8PM. Grabbed JD and Dilly for a photo shoot. The faces behind the voices ;P DJ Chinois in da house! Jie and I love his skool daze mixes. It says Made in China on his T-Shirt ;) All in all it was a fantabulous night, bummer for not winning anything (even from the Lucky Draw)...But hey, free beer, free food, fantastic view, excellent music and pole dancers to boot...I can't complain =)

A rather eventful Monday morning.

Dad made sure that we knew how to change car tyres back when we were in our teens. Man, I still remember he actually made me and jie jack up a car and remove the car tyre. Never had a chance to utilise this skill... ...Till today :( Ripped my tyres going over a pretty big hole in the road near Plaza Damansara. Malaysia boleh! The standards of our roads aitelyu...It really, really leaves a lot to be desired. My handphone battery was dead, so I couldn't call for help. Help would have taken at least 30 minutes to arrive anyway and it would probably take me about 20 minutes to change the tyre. So I did what every responsible driver would do in these sorta situations. I pulled over to the side of the road, made sure I was not obstructing traffic, turned on my hazard lights, rolled up my sleeves and proceeded to get to work. The weather was really good and I hardly broke out a sweat changing the tyre. Here's what happened somewhere in between the point where I was jacking up my car and removing the spare from the boot. A dude on a motorbike pulls up and offers to help. I was counting my blessings, as I thought to myself, hey...an extra set of hands = half the time taken to change the tyre. W00t! W00t! Turns out his offer was not for free. I politely smiled and told him that I could handle it on my own. Maybe I was in my work clothes. Maybe I had my spectacles on this morning. Maybe I have a slight frame. Thanks for the "offer" but really, I can handle changing a car tyre on my own. *sigh* Joe, if you are reading this. Can I have the number soon? Will try calling them up before heading down to Lim Tayars. 20 minutes, I guess Formula one teams won’t be hiring me to be a member of their pit stop crew anytime soon. All that and I still managed to make it into work on time. Heheh... So…lesson to be learned is make sure your handphone battery is fully charged on Monday Morning's, lest you get into a situation like mine and do not want to get your hands dirty. Also make sure your spare is properly inflated, nothing worse than having a puncture only to find that your spare is flat as well. As for the changing tyres bit, call me if you need lessons. I'll teach you for free.

Keep on Rolling

I listen to JD and Dilly on red.fm on the way to work every morning. They are a joy to listen to bright and early in the morning and sorta like warms my engine up to prepare me for the work day. On the way back from work yesterday, I heard that they would be at Lim Tayar down in SS2 from 19.30 till 20.30. On the spur of the moment (which is very unlike me) I decided to turn off into SS2 and go shake their hand to be in the running for the grand prize of 10 Grand. I had missed them by about 30 minutes when they set up their booth in Ampang Park about a month or so back. I think I was the second to arrive. I was greeted by the bubblicious Dilly who proceeded to ask me If I had signed up for the grand prize contest yet (Shake our hand to win 10 Grand). She passed me a sign up form and whilst filling it up, I shook hands with JD. W00t!W00t! I am now in the running to win 10 Grand! (Keeping my fingers crossed) Apart from the Grand Prize, some games will be played at each stop, where those who meet and greet JD and Dilly stand to win excellent prizes. The venue being Lim Tayar, I stood a chance to win a set of Continental Tyres for my car! The game we played was guess that song. JD would play snippets of a song and we had to name the song and the artist that sang it. Man...I knew the songs that JD played for all the other contestants, but hit some major hiccups with some songs he played for me, namely; songs sung by Avril Lavigne and The Script. Heheheh...Goes to show I am an 80's child after all. Anyways...Long Story short, Akon's - I wanna Love You won me a set of 4 Continental ContiPremiumContact2 (CPC2) tires y'all! Did some checking on the Net to find that they retail at RM550 per pop! Click on the hyperlink above to see the tech details of the tires. For details of what I actually won, see image below ;) Only problem is...They are too big for my car! These tires will fit 16" rims. I'm only running 15" rims on my Honda City. So, if you know anyone who runs 16" rims and is looking to get a new set of tyres for their rides. Drop me an e-mail. Buy 3 get 1 free? P/S: Thanks to red.fm and JD and Dilly! It was really great to meet you two in person.

Do The Right Thing

My favourite food group, if you can call it that, is Lok Lok. Fatman, FatOne, FatTwo. No preference. As long as there's a hot pot and chicken gizzards/ pork intestines&kidneys on a stick, I'll need to satisfy my craving every now and then ;) Growing up, we used to hit a stall by the old Ruby Cinema near SEA Park for dessert after having lunch. Dad used to lament that dessert cost him more than lunch. ROFL. Growing up, dad also instilled a strong sense of doing the right thing in me. Whilst I was satisfying my cravings a little earlier tonight, I was sharing a hot pot with a guy who was dipping the cooked and well marinated bits of Pig's Ear into a pot of boiling water. That in itself got me a little peeved. It's already cooked damnit! Plus the juices were flowing onto my fishballs!!! As I was tucking into my meat on a stick, he motioned for the Stall Owner for the bill. His bill came to RM8.40. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him pass the owner a RM10 note.The Stall owner went to his wife (who was holding the money) to get change for the guy. Passed him back RM1.60. To my surprise, Mr.Dip Cooked Meat into boiling water said that he had passed him a RM50 note! The owner was caught by surprise as well, and actually went back to his wife to get his 'change' for him. At this point I mentioned to the owner that he actually passed him back the correct change the 1st time round...Mr.Pig Ear gave me a glare and actually had the cheek to ask me to mind my own business! It wasn't enough that my fishballs tasted of the marinade, this guy was trying to pull a fast one on a guy trying to make a decent living. I repeated myself curtly, "You paid him 10 bucks, you trying to cheat him ar?"Grumbling, he took his change while giving me the evil eye. Fed Up, I drew myself up to my full height and gave him a WTF, you know you aren't supposed to dip cooked marinated meat into Lok Lok, some more wanna cheat the poor uncle, now you wanna fight ar "look"? Needless to say, nothing untoward happened. Mr. Pig's Ear went on his way and I continued enjoying my cockles...My bill came to RM11.30. Gave the uncle Rm11 bucks, 1/2 hoping for a discount, for standing up for him =D To no avail. Here's to doing the right thing. Heh.

Be Prepared.

I was. I suffered a puncture while taking my bike out for a spin on Sunday morning. I pushed my bike to the nearest petrol station, proceeded to remove my rear tyre (why is it bike punctures always happen in the rear?) Removed the punctured tube. Checked and cleaned the inside of the tire of debris. Took out the spare tube, attached the adapter...hooked it up to the compressor. Only to find that my spare had a hole in it as well. ROFL! goes to show that you that even the best laid preparations/plans can come crashing/unfolding before you eyes...heheh. Thank you for pointing this out :P Ended up trotting (try running with cleats on, you will sound like a horse) back home whilst pushing my bike. *note to self, check condition of spare tube every now and then*

The Mid-Term School Break =)

When we were in school, didn't we use to look forward to the School Holidays? I know I did. The holidays basically meant being bundled into the family car and going off on a road trip somewhere while listening to the likes of the Beatles/Abba/Boney M/Bee Gees/Simon & Garfunkel being piped through Blaupunkt in the car. Thanks Dad ;) My knowledge of 'em songs has come in very useful during the many karaoke sessions that I've been attending of late. It's subliminal I tell ya! Don't even need to refer to the lyrics sometimes ;) But nowadays, I look forward to the School Holidays as well. Why? 1.) Less cars on the road during peak hours. (I pass two schools on the way to work and two more on the way to the gym) 2.) Getting a parking @ the station is that much easier. 3.) Getting a seat on the train to and from work as well. By getting a seat on the train, I've been able to catch up on my reading while commuting to work. I was at the Big Book Shop warehouse down in Atria last weekend and I had two books selected, Robinson Crusoe and The Great Gatsby. Whilst shoving a dictionary under her nose to explain to her the subtle nuances of her blog title, she asked me to get The Great Gatsby instead. It's an interesting read. It discusses the moral failure of a society obsessed with wealth and status. Though written in the mid 1920's, the premise still holds true today. Definitely an American Classic. Hmmm...Maybe I should attempt to re-read Catch-22 again. It's a little heavy, but I have been advised by Paolo to stick with it as it gets better towards the end. Speaking of classics, does anyone happen to have a copy of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling lying around? Due to some recent twits, I have not been able to get the Bare Necessities tune out of my head. I am hoping that reading the book will help to drown out the tune. ROFL :D The weekend is upon us and it does look like it's going to be a busy one indeed... To my friends participating in the Xterra this weekend, all the best!

The outdoorsy weekend that was...

Slapped on a new chain on my bike the previous week and took it out for a spin on Saturday. Chain felt good till I hit the trails. The chain would slip with the slightest amount of torque that I applied on the pedals. I tried to pussy-foot it up the hills. Imagine dancing tippy-toe on your pedals while trying to negotiate an off-road incline. Not Nice! Made some adjustments on the fly, but it was still slipping on most of the trails. I knew then that it was not only the chain I had to change, but the cassette as well. I have never been a weight weenie and given that it was RM80 bucks cheaper, the Shimano LX cassette won hands down over the XT set that they were pushing. *sigh* Baby's in the shop right now. Getting her handlebars shaved by an inch off both sides. This should make it easier for me to manoeuvre through the tight singletrack's that define kiara. Hydraulic brakes were acting up as well, so I am having them bled. Hopefully all that work with the cassette change will give me a problem free ride for the next 6 months to a year. Back in the day, I don't remember having to service the bike that often. Hmm..I guess they just don't make them like they used to. Went for a little trail running yesterday with Becks. The trails look different on foot compared to staring at it from over the handlebar. Looking at the rutted, rooty and steep descents and ascents, I must be half crazy to go bombing down those trails on my bike most every weekend, heheh.. I was impressed with her trail running. The ease at which she was sidestepping rocks and shifting her center of gravity to go with the flow of the trail, clearly she had done this before. She managed to push herself (with some coaxing from me) through the entire 2K trail. Glad to know she had fun running with me. Heheh, looks like I may have found an adventure race partner now. Next year we do x-terra ok?