Back to back celebrations 1

The Whole Gang... Class of 2005-2007

Class of 2005

Still the Class of 2005 - still as crazy..

If you think these pics are crazy, wait till you see the longan pictures at the bottom

A serious moment, Looi and me with the organiser - USC's Manager of Graduate Studies - John McKelvey

November is just packed with celebrations. Friday (16 Nov 2007) marks a date for a back to back celebration.... Kee's Birthday and USC Alumni's dinner.

Dont really have the time to update much - just can tell you we had a fantastic party, but I'll upload the photos once I get over my hangover.

3rd Dec 2007 : Okay, the photos you've been eagerly waiting for.... (phew, finally got over my hangover due to all the b-day celebrations in Nov!!)

Btw, just so you know, our USC MBA degree is approved by our National Accreditation Board, LAN (Lembaga Akreditasi Negara). Will have to collect my accreditation certificate at Segi (formerly known as Systematic) College soon.....

The LONGAN PARTY!

Jennifer: Eh, who ate all my longans - I mean mata kuching?

Kamar: It' me, nah see, 3 more, 3 more in my mouth.

Khoo: I can't see... Can only see YB (Yang Berat).

Cathlyn: Yeah, at least there's someone bigger than me...

PARTY AFTER the PARTY (at Pelita)

Homecoming King err... Keng

The early birds a.k.a. the hungry lot... The late comers who have to foot the bill :D

NOV 14, WED: Peter is back. Each time we look forward to his homecoming as it means "chow"time. (Of course, we also look forward to him bringing back the the goodies which we ordered from the US to be sent to his US address...hahaha). As seafood ala Malaysian style is rare in the US, our first reunion meal is usually Seafood... and crabs is a must-order dish. Deric (Marianne), these pictures are just for you since you're stuck in the Philipines.

Fresh Steam Crabs with Eggs, Salted Egg with Cereal Crabs

Milk Prawns, Sotong ala Thai Style

Frogs in Essence of Chicken, Brussels Sprouts with Enoki Mushroom
Mui Choy Pork

This year we had our mini reunion at Mei Keng Fatt in Ampang. I mentioned "mini" because only 9 were gathered out of the 60 strong contract programmers we had back in 98. Yeah, those were the days when Contractors ruled the IT world. ha ha.

Gosh how time flies.... , next year marks our 10 anniversary since we got to know each other! We've been through many thick and thin (both in terms of events and physically) and share many bitter sweet memories. Hmmm.... I shall let the photos do all the talking while you guys wipe your tears reminiscing the good old days!

Ching Ai De Ren (亲蜜爱人) - My Dear Loved One

I am suddenly smittened by this song, Anita Mui's Ching Ai De Ren (My dear loved one). Actually I heard it over an audio file called High Society Shanghai Divas. It featured jazz versions of a lot of Mandarin songs and I loved them. I dont read chinese and hardly speak it but I am trying very hard to learn this song. The teasing, tempting, soothing sound of the Shanghai Diva who delivered this song really made me fall in love with this song...

I don't have the audio file version but here's a version from Anita Mui which I found in YouTube.... I have even attached the lyrics below in case you wanna sing along...just like me.... hahaha

梅艳芳 亲蜜爱人

今夜还吹着风

想起你好温柔

有你的日子分外的轻松

也许是无影踪

只是想你太浓

怎么会无时无刻把你梦

爱的路上有你

我并不寂寞

你对我那么的好

这次真的不同

也许我应该好好把你拥有

就像你一直在为我守候

亲爱的人 亲密的爱人

谢谢你这么长的时间陪着我

亲爱的人 亲密的爱人

这是我一生中最兴奋的时分

========My own pin yin translation ===========

Ching yeh hai chui zhe fung
Siang chee ni hao wen row
Yow ni de re zi fen wai de ching sung

Yeh woo shi woo ying chung
Chi shi siang ni thai nung
Zhem mo hui wu sei wu ke pa ni mong

Ai de lu sang yow ni
Wo ping pu zee mou
Ne tui wo na mou de hao
Che zhi chen de pu tong
Yeh shue wo ying kai hao hao pa ni yung you
Chiu siang ni yi zhe zhai wei wo sou hou

Ching ai de ren ching mi de ai ren
Sheh sheh ni zhe mer chang de shee jen pei zhe wo
Ching ai de ren ching mi de ai ren
zhe she wo yi seng chong jui shing fen de shi fen.

Malaysia's 50th Merdeka

30 August 2006:

Today is the eve of Merdeka day. Bryan’s kindergarten is teaching them harmonious cultural exchange (muhibbah) by asking each and everyone of the children to wear their traditional costume to school. It’s optional so I allowed Bryan to go to school in his uniform which wasn’t a good idea as it made him feel like the odd one out. Then my son asked the teacher to call me to bring his traditional costume to school to let him change. Since I thought it would be cute to let him wear the Punjabi costume which he made for last year’s concert, I brought his “National Costume” to school and helped him change. The teacher told me that the RTM crew would come over to film them. Hmmm, no wonder the teacher obliged to Bryan’s request to call me. By making Bryan wear the traditional costume, it also helps to advertise….

Anyway, it was so cute to see them all so pretty and handsome all dressed up. And they were so excited that there’ll be a party as one girl in Bryan’s class was going to celebrate her birthday in school today. I wished I could stay to share this part of childhood memory with Bryan but I had to leave for work. Childhood memories are the best part of our memories for most of us. Life was simple and carefree. I was recently brought back to memory lane during a Karaoke session with Carmen, my cousin who spent most of her growing up years in my house as my mom babysat her and her brother. We were singing songs which we sang a lot in our childhood…. Like Spice Girls. Boy, I couldn’t stand straight due to too much laughing after rendering the Wannabe song with her. Didn’t realize that they used so much “Huh Huh Huh” and “Slam Slam Slam” in their lyrics. And she really blew me with the “Tuna Taka Wee Wee” tune (from Beyond’s AMANI) when we tried to find for some Chinese songs. Neither of us read Chinese you see.

We used to have a mini band that consist of Carmen (lead singer), her brother (Drummer) and myself (Guitarist/Singer) and tried to mimic songs from Beyond. Ironically, Mun (Carmen’s brother) really went on to form a REAL band as a drummer. (see, who says childhood games are useless!) We had a good laugh as we wondered why on earth we liked those guys with hairdos (long, curly and combed to one side! Go see Paul Wong in some of Beyond’s old music videos to see what I mean) and had small eyes and wear crummy snowcaps.

We were reminded on how we practice “seconds” while bathing (we had 2 adjacent bathroom in my mom’s house and we’d be occupying both and singing duets acapella ahahah). We sang Top of the World and Especially for you, with “high class precision” due to those “years of training” hahahaha.. Oh, ‘Top of the World’ reminded me of something funny. Kee, my colleague, told me that he hated Karaokes because he was so sick of everyone singing oldies such as My Way and Top of the World. And I told him, “Don’t worry, come to Karaoke with me and I GUARANTEE we wont sing these oldies….”

Incidentally, when I went into the Red Box karaoke with Carmen that night, under the “hit charts for the day”, in between “Umbrella” and “4 in the morning”, was “MY WAY”. And guess what, I accidentally pressed MY WAY as our first song when my intention was Gwen Stefani’s “4 in the morning”! And my cousin looked at me with a weird look and I couldn’t help laughing and told her about Kee. See, Kee you’re famous now. And yeah, true to Kee’s words, Top Of the World was also in the “Hit Charts List”… hahahaha Both of us vowed to change Kee’s mind with our version of Top of the World…. (Don’t play play, practised since we were in our teens!!! hahahaha)

It was really refreshing to sing these old songs after struggling to do Beyonce’s Irreplacable, Akon’s No Matter, PCD’s Doncha, Rihanna’s Umbrella and Gwen’s “Sweet Escape”. I cannot remember having a more wild and fun time at a Karaoke than that night with all the “Slam Slam Slam” and “Uhuh Huh Huh” …Yeah, these 2 shameless Divas really shouted our hearts and voices out.

18/11/2005 - Mun's Bday@Redbox SgWang
Ok ok to be fair to my other Karaoke kakis, I did have a lot of fun with Mun and his friends (especially the Lau Hung Qook whereby the music video takes a satirical look at Karaoke goers) and also enjoyed the sessions with my (ex) colleagues who always makes the atmosphere lively with their playful mic and remote control hogging (I won’t write about Karaoke ethics as Winnie has already done that in her blog…) and even dancing! And of course with Brandon who is always courteous and claps for everyone no matter how badly they sing (esp yours truly)! And I would never forget the fun-filled times with my ex-MBA classmates who enjoyed singing all sorts of Muhibbah songs as a way to release “assignment and exams” stress…

Happy Merdeka Day to one and all…. Muhibbah Selalu! (Viva la Harmony)

Note: 18 Dec 2004 (Khoo's farewell) @ Redbox HLA

Of Bachelors nights and such

Our soon to be "not eligible"
bachelor Anthony Chan
- err.. Kenson...
My feet are extremely tired out, due to the crazy night out at Aloha last Saturday, so much so the muscles are complaining by sending out pain signals every time I stress them to take a step up a flight of stairs. From these muscle cramps, you’d guessed that it’s been a long time since I’ve done any clubbing at all – yeah, my clubbing social life has practical ground to a halt, zilch, void, null…. Until Kenson came along and decided he is tired of his singlehood and no longer wants to be a bachelor. Yes, he’s finally ready to trade his freedom for mops, and pots and pans and babies in tow…. Well, about time, took him more than 30 years to come out of this dilemma (opps did I just revealed your age? hahahah) … Anyway, it’s high time you did it anyway, don’t want to keep Vanessa waiting too long now, do we? Better get her hitched before she gets tired of waiting ehehehe..

Anyway, so that’s the reason for my “chung chut kong woo” (re-entering the clubbing scene). Wai Mun had sort of organized a “Bachelor’s Night” for him to commemorate his “wild days” and to give him one last fling before he kiss goodbye to his bachelorhood for good… (NO TURNING BACK, KENSON, there’s no turning back.….Ahahahhaa). The theme for the night was “A day to remember Kenson Koh (1974 – 2007)”. Wai Mun has even meticulously thought of the wordings to be etched on his bachelorhood epitaph:

“6th October 2007 – a day to commemerate the last few days of our comrade Kenson's glorious bachelor days before his downfall to marriage. It is a day to rejoice for guys because there’s less one competitor. And a day to grieve for the ladies, for there is one less eligible bachelor in this world.”

Anyway, the night went well after the late dinner at Picollo Mondo’s where Wai Mun had lasagna made from bad tomatoes. He was already hungry when we reached Aloha. Kenson worked his charms on the Henessy girl (or was it the other way around?) and got all of us in (some 20 of us or more) with just 4 bottles. (Ed's special note: I knew it was a good night already when the bouncer asked for my IC despite Wai Mun and Alex jeering, "You ah? don't even bother taking it out lor...")

Inside, the live band and the pet python and piranhas were already driving the jam packed crowd crazy. Obviously, we couldn’t get a table there despite pre-booking earlier, so we had to settle for the lower ground where the DJs played a lot of comtemporary "house" music remix, which was good as I couldn’t identify with techno and rap music…

The atmosphere was hot and after a few drinks, everyone was in the mood and started dancing … except Kenson who didn’t drink much (why ah? Already having second thoughts? kakaka). He wasn’t even sporting enough when we asked him for a "strip show"… - Umm, that meant he has to "strip" and "show" us… hahahaahah… So all the guys start working their ways to “coax” him to strip hahahaha….Well, all the guys yanked at his t-shirt so hard to get it off that his t-shirt became a “skirt” after that. Hahahaah… Later he told me that “it’s not the right place lar…. I want some place quieter where we can chat and dance” … So guys, now you know where he’ll strip for you guys.. work on that!! Hahahahaah

Wai Mun(the original striptease who couldnt do it) and Kenson, the skirt, who wasnt sporting enough to bare all...

After a lot of dancing and drinking and dancing and drinking and drinking and dancing (like how CK likes it, REPEAT and REPEAT..... err, did I mention drinking?), most were out. Except maybe for Simon who was busy working on his PR skills the whole night. Way to go, Simon! What’s the score? :P.….

Here are the work of arts courtesy of Simon, part of his PR work ...

It’s amazing how all of us manage to find our ways home after that. Alex was the only one who could walk and talk straight after downing 2 bottles due to all his training with the Yakuzas of Japan. Remarkably too, Sau Teng and CK, who were great drinkers and dancers, were still keeping their all-time-cool composure, after all those drinks and dance. How do you guys do it? Carmen, sad to say this, although you could sing and dance pretty well, you’re a bad drinker coz you were out even before we started!!! ahahaha

Wai Mun was sleepy (he paid me not to mention he was "out" while CK looks on, gleefully...

Oh, since kids will be reading this, “Don’t drink and drive!”. We had sober Kenson driving us back… and of course, yours truly was as sober as a judge, so there’ll never be short of designated drivers on our night outs. (Ok ok, I will remember to bring my driving license next time!!)…

Anyway, Kenson, it was a great night and all of us had fun….Hope you had fun too (while it last hahahah).

Well, as lame as it might sound, Congratulations on the brave decision and all the best in your embarkation aboard the marriage-ship.

*Note: all the above are just a satirical view on the night-out to commemorate Kenson and his last days of bachelorhood. The event and names mentioned were used just for the sole purpose of making merry and fun and no harmful intentions are deliberated in any way.

Musical Wedding

Another wedding extraordinaire. Went to a very musical wedding. My girlfriend, Cathlyn married a musicman, the Musicman Ken. (well, actually I am a friend of both the bride and the groom as they were both my MBA coursemates, but of course I was closer to the bride. Now who says nothing good comes out of our MBA course hehehe)

Anyway, Ken is the owner of Bently Music School (well, sounds a bit of advertisement here… but no they didn’t pay me for this.. :P) so it’s no wonder that they identify the dining tables by musical instruments and Musical Band names. Mine was Musicman Stingray… with a picture of an electric guitar. Since I am not quite musically incline, I am open to comments on the interpretation of that.. :P

Needless to say, the musical entertainment for the night was of A-class. They broke the normal routine of walking down the red carpet to the tune of their favourite music. Instead, they sung “Endless Love” themselves as they waltz in graciously hand in hand. Now that was an extremely romantic scene and I am sure a few romantics nearly swoon. (Ed: And to think they initially wanted us to sing for them - I personally think singing themselves is a more original idea and more memorable and meaningful, don't you think?) The life band that they hired was superb, whereby the beautiful girl belted out number after number of superb soothing songs which were just right for the dining ambience.


I had my handsful with Bryan, as usual if I bring him to any dinner. Actually the thoughtful bride and groom provided a special section for kids where there were clowns and coloring books and prizes just for the children. I guess the children would loved it as they could have endless supply of sausages and fries at that section. However, I, being a paranoid parent, cannot bear to lose sight of Bryan, decided to keep Bryan at the “adults” section instead; much to the chagrin of one of the “chee muis” as initially Bryan had occupied her seat.. :P Have to apologize again for keeping her husband sitting at the next table until the baby chair came along which was much much later.. hahahah…



Anyway, the event was nicely planned and everything and everyone was beautiful… had a good time meeting up old friends but catching up was a little tedious for me due to Bryan’s constant craving for my attention. He keep asking me questions which I couldn’t answer, much to the amusement of everyone on my table.

For example, Ken said in his speech about something “I am very touched but I couldn’t cry….”

And then, Bryan asked, “Why he said he couldn’t cry?”

I really don’t know how to answer… ahahaha and I could hear the sniggers from my classmates at my table…. :P

After a few glasses of wine, (which was kinda good but I forgot the brand… Ken/Cathlyn, mind dropping us the name and year of the red wine served?) we were a little drunk and I completely forgot about Bryan’s Doraemon tumbler. After leaving the place, Bryan suddenly exclaimed that he forgot his tumbler and started crying for his Doraemon tumbler. Well, instead of bothering the newly weds with my phonecall (who knows what they would be doing already after the dinner right…hahaha), I sent an sms to Cathlyn and told her to keep the tumbler for me if she was still in Millenium hotel.


She brought me good news the next morning and she said she wasn’t doing much now that she has upgraded her status to an “Ah So” (auntie). Welcome to the club Cath.. hahahaha

Anyway, Congratulations Ken and Cathlyn. May your days ahead be filled with sun shiny happy tunes and your nights with romantic and soothing music and may both of you enjoy these pleasant tunes together forever….

Children Safety Awareness

SEPT 20, 2007 - Lately the rising of rape and kill rate of children are quite alarming. And it saddens me to see all these things happening to innocent young girls… There are more and more perverts out there and I really don’t feel safe anymore. Did you hear about the latest news, about a website called, MarryOurDaughter.com, which was created by a guy who wants US to do something about the minimum age for marriage and also try to encourage US to enhance their law on statutory rape and the loose law against rapist using marriage to escape from their sins. That website has lots and lots of young girls profile in there (age below 16) where the parents urge young eligible men to write in and propose to their daughters. There were a lot of response, from ppl all over US and the website had few hundred thousand hits in just 2 weeks. There were even requests from parents to add in their daughters into the site. So you see how pervertic both parents and men in the US.

The site, thankfully, is a hoax, created to spread awareness among the citizens as an urge for the legislative department in the US to do something to curb the “selling” of daughters (flesh trade) and hopefully save young girls from marriage-rape, or date-rape.

Just wanna create some awareness here with this article…

Well, I know you guys must be trying to go into the site as I speak… well the site has been taken down as of yesterday when the creator took his case to CNN to report his findings and urge the US Legislative department to do something. The thing is, this site may be a hoax in the US but in other parts of the world, it’s already happening and most government is not doing anything or cant do anything about it.

I am very worried… Maybe paranoia… I am thinking if I could ever manage a daughter in such a world. I think I would be having sleepless nights everyday, worrying about her… .. :P