Shifting focus

Done with marking the ICC exam scripts for this semester.

Now to focus on marking CCS.

Submission of report this Friday, which means more work come this weekend.

Mimaland re-visited

This old photo from 1991

Just yesterday as I was browsing through some old photos with a friend of mine, I came across a photo which took me back to 1991.

I was a teenager back then, and the picture was one that had been taken when I was a camp committee for the youth group way back when...

The photo had been taken at Mimaland.

By friend, being a few years younger than I was asked, "what is Mimaland?"

I paused for a minute and then replied a question with another question, "You haven't heard of Mimaland?"

"Nope".

So I went on to say, "Before there was Sunway Lagoon, there was Mimaland."

She then got the idea that it was a theme park or something.

Then for a quick silent moment, in the deep recesses of my mind, I was taken back further in time.

I had the vague recollections of my folks taking me to Mimaland when I was somewhere between 5 to 8 years of age. What I remembered most clearly were the replica of dinosaurs made of concrete (well, at least I think it was made of that). Being a child born in the 1970's and had spent my childhood in KL it was needless to say that I had felt a tinge of nostalgia reminiscing the past glories of the 70s and 80s and this was clearly one which I had fond memories of.

Mimaland was a famous recreation park located 25 kms from the city at the northern suburb of Gombak right at the tip of KL en route to the old Bentong road. The theme park was a favourite with Klang Valley residents who needed a quick retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city. Like I mentioned in the previous paragraph, there were replica of dinosaurs (eg. tyrannosaurus, pteranodon, stegosaurus, triceratops, etc). If I remembered correctly, there was a water park there as well, and also a lake for boating activities and also lots of greeneries surrounding it.

I located some old photos from the Web and a big special thanks to those who had managed to preserve these photos and had brought back so many memories to those of us who were privilege enough to live through the "Age of the Dinosaurs". I don't think I am the only one out here in cyberspace that had, at some point, thought about Mimaland.

Dinosaurs used to walk the earth here in Malaysia

(Photo source: http://shw.25th-anniversary.fotopages.com/12352672)

Mammoth (not Court's!)

(Photo source: http://shw.25th-anniversary.fotopages.com/12352672)

I'm surprised some people actually have photos (scanned or otherwise) of these dinosaur structures in their collection

(Photo source: http://shw.25th-anniversary.fotopages.com/12352672)

Water slides... like I said, before Sunway Lagoon

(Photo source: ksdr.org.my or myenthusiasts.org)

The water park

(Photo source: 9teen87's Postcards at flickr.com or myenthusiasts.org)

What happened to Mimaland?

I googled it and found little but precious visuals and information about it. I had even used Google Maps to locate it, but it cannot even be found on the map. Clearly, it's long forgotten even before Google Maps started on the Web hence no such labels were identified.

I had read in the Star article on 25 January 2008 that the park ceased operations in 1993 and had officially closed in 1994 due to landslides. 15 years on today, I checked to see some images of the place and was shocked to see the once-glorious park is now just left abandoned in a very sorry state of disrepair.

Here are some visuals that I managed to retrieve from various sources:

The front entrance to Mimaland with the overgrown resident creepers

(Photo source: eddie.lau via pelita89.blogspot.com)

According to The Star, this was the office of Mimaland

(Photo source: The Star Online)

The road into Mimaland -- a shadow of its former self.

Now broken beyond recognition.

(Photo source: The Star Online)

The bus stop that used to carry many a crowd to and fro Mimaland at 11th Mile, Gombak

(Photo source: The Star Online)

Apparently, the land is owned by someone who is waiting for the right price to sell it off. But before that, my question is: how did it come to this?

At the rate it is decaying away, the future of this place looks uncertain. I can think of so many things that can be done to this place but would they? And when?

There is no happy ending to this blog entry because there is not a foreseeable future that holds for this place which is akin to a ghost town, as The Star calls it.

There is only a happy past we can look back on which brings a quiet smile to our faces and somehow cringe in the embarrassment of guilty pleasure that we had enjoyed Mimaland and had lived through it -- but only if you're in your very late 20s or above.

How simple our lives were back then.

Michelle's wedding - 18 October

On a much milder scale, the day following Sheldon and Tiffany's wedding was Michelle and ML's wedding.

I had slept in after the partying at Sheldon's wedding the whole morning. The call time for our practice was at 2pm; wedding was at 4pm. I was playing the guitar for this wedding at Eastin. Anyway, there was ample time in the morning to relax a bit.

The wedding is markedly different from Sheldon's the day before. While Sheldon's wedding was spent with many of my guy friends, I had spent Michelle's wedding predominantly with the gals. So the whole mood and vibe was very different.

Arrived slightly late for the rehearsal but still not the latest. I think Chee Mun was a little worried as I am usually one of the earliest to arrive. However, we got rehearsal started once the keyboard player arrived.

The hotel had a partition which provided for the couple one-third of the entire ballroom to have the wedding ceremony which was quite nicely done up. The colour theme according to Michelle was ivory and red. The team of musicians chose a dark shade of red, almost maroon I might add.

with Yen Ling -- just before the wedding

with Chee Mun, Ruby, Huay Phing, and Yen Ling

The AJ team was out in full swing. King, Jess, Pauline, Apple, Yen Ling, and HP did the guest table; while Ruby, Chee Mun, and I did the worship music. Wilson was working the sound system and Desmond was appointed to be the MC at night for the dinner (together with the other Michelle). Janice had the unenviable task of translating the wedding message by Elder Koon Tatt but she aced it despite this occasion being her 'maiden voyage'. Mi Me took the lead role as the very patient wedding coordinator to which she produced a good job as usual. Not too sure what the rest were doing though.

with Paul, Apple, CM, Ruby, YL, Jess

I was quite taken with both Yen Ling and Huay Phing's dresses though. Yen Ling wore a corset-ish strapless dress. I said corset-ish because she had those ribbons at the back which tightens to enhance her figure with the top half being black while the bottom half was black and grey horizontal stripes. To give it the finishing touches, she had a pearl necklace on to tszuj up the whole appearance. Looks pretty gothic but still quite sexy. As for Huay Phing, she went for the traditional and always-in-season black dress that was cut very, very narrowly (ie. figure-enhancing) with a low plunging neckline. Good amount of cleavage -- not too much to make her look slutty, and not too little to make her look like a prude either. To prevent herself from those 'oops moments' of course she had a sheer black shawl. But hot, hot, hot! Both of them. Of course, this is not to disregard the rest, but like I said before, there is so much a girl can do to dress up for a wedding, and there's only this much a guy can do to without looking tacky and cheesy. Generally, the girls did dress up well.

The bridal procession started at around 4:30pm I think. Aunt Alice walked Michelle down the aisle which was very unusual but given the circumstances it was sweet nonetheless. Weddings as weddings go, you can roughly figure out the programme. So...

Bridal procession

Ps Chandran doing the solemnization

Once the wedding ceremony was done and the photo session has been completed, we quickly vacated the room so that the hotel crew could remove the partition and extend it as part of the banquet hall for the dinner. While Michelle and Mian Loong were doing the tea ceremony with their relatives, and since we had about 2 hours to spare, YL, CM, Ruby and I went to grab a quick bite at the mamak nearby. Some of us didn't have lunch as we had to be there for the rehearsal so it was our opportunity to fill our stomachs for the time being and to ward off the hunger pangs temporarily until dinner. We share two plates of maggi goreng between the four of us.

Yen Ling and me. I heard she got her make-up done professionally. Nice?

I was seated with YL, Pris, Calvin, Mi Me, baby Isaac, Pauline, Apple, HP, and umm... ok, forgot who the other two were. Sorry whoever you are. I'm quite certain it's someone I know. The rest of AJ sat on the next table.

with Priscilla

with Janice, YL, Pris

Oh yes, if I might add... the wine was good.

So that makes two nights of drinking. But I certainly drank a lot less for this one.

I need to keep tab of that liver and not damage it too much anymore. But that too is another story...

But I have this one nagging question though: how did Yen Ling made it to so many of my photos? Tsk tsk tsk.

Sheldon's wedding - 17 October

The heng tais

(l-r: Mike, Kenneth, moi, Keng, the groom, Yu Son, Terence, Stef, and Eric)

Yes, as the title suggests, this entry is a little late but that's ok. Even right up to today, Sheldon's still tagging us on Facebook.

17 October, Sat: Needless to say, as heng tais, he had to get up early. Call time was 8:45am at Sheldon's. Just the night before we were at his place having dinner together under the canopy and just hanging out and goofing about. We--his heng tais and our WAGs (wives and girlfriends, where applicable)--had checked out his "first night" room. I must admit, it was quite well done up. All Sheldon's Pantera, Megadeth, and his other gory death metal CDs (with not the most romantic of graphics on the covers) were properly stored all too neatly away, with the bridal pic well mounted on the wall and on a side table. He then dispensed his bridal studio photos to his beloved "brothers". The WAGs were more particular on the photo they received so they had first pickings.

Ok, anyway, back to Saturday morning... we arrived quite punctually by our standards. Sadie, Kah Jin, and the parents of the groom were the great hosts again after the night before and served us nice breakfast. Once done, we chatted for a while, took some pics and... took some more pics. Then it was time to leave Bandar Sri D'sara for D'sara Jaya to "collect" the bride.

With the WAGs

Once arriving at the bride's place, we came to our first hurdle--the front gate. This was when the ji muis (with their HABs ie. husbands and boyfriends) got into their jual mahal mode and made life difficult for us. The sister of the bride was the head honcho behind this devious plan. She asked for one heng tai to step up. Looking around, we were not sure who would go first... so Terence stepped up to be the first. They passed a full wine glass of yellowish liquid over the gate and asked him to drink up within 10 seconds. For a moment, KL and I feared the worse. We thought it was piss. Well, the good thing was... piss it wasn't. T downed the big first gulp and had to swallow which took some time, but he eventually finished it to much applause. I later found out from Terence it was a mixture of thick honey with another thing added which he too was unsure. Once cleared, the gate was unlocked to allow the groom's party in. But we were again locked out at the front entrance and they now required two more of us. Up stepped S and E. The rest of us were locked out while the two were let in to do their "task". Both of them had to dress up and re-enact the proposal scene. It was vicious what the bridal party did to them. After dressing up and re-enacting the proposal, they had to do two dances in front of the bridal party. Real nasty. Photos were removed from here to protect the identity of the said persons.

Arrival at the bride's gate -- Level 1 cleared!

Waiting for our 'punishment'

(Photo courtesy of the official wedding camera)

Then they called the next three: this was when KL, YS and myself stood up and be counted. We were given seats. Ok, this was too good to be true. Next we were told to roll up our jeans and exposed our legs. The bridal party decided to stick some plasters to paste on our legs. I reckoned we were getting a waxing then. I was quite right really. Another two of the guys stepped up and had the easy job of dipping their foot into a bucket to pick up keys of different colours--white or red. Questions will be asked to the groom based on the colour of the keys. If the two guys didn't pick up the keys on time. We kena. If Sheldon answers wrongly or not within the 10 seconds. We kena. Bad deal, huh??? In other words, we kena. Yes, what little hair I had on my legs were now removed from me as well. When the plasters ran out, they "punished" us by making us eat biscuit sticks... with wasabi.

Not my most glorious moment

(Photo courtesy of official wedding photo)

The wasabi moment: check out Keng's face

Once cleared, the groomsmen headed for the final hurdle. The bride's door. Sheldon had to sing something romantic to the satisfaction of the bride. Not the best of singers among us, Sheldon struggled but did so with gusto nonetheless. There was no stopping him at this final stage now. We helped him sang "Stand By Me". Then he had to say something romantic... and he did his best, "I WILL LOVE YOU UNTIL THE DAY I DIE!!!" (ok, three exclamation marks is not enough for this... here's more for good measure!!!!!)

The door clicked open.

The bride sat there waiting for her 21st century knight.

He said it one more time, "I WILL LOVE YOU UNTIL THE DAY I DIE!!!" because she wanted to hear it again.

What followed the "I WILL LOVE YOU UNTIL..." moment

Shel+Tiff

Our job was done, now it was his turn.

Then there were the tea ceremony on her side followed by photos.

The newlyweds with the heng tais and 1 WAG at her previous home.

(photo courtesy of bride's official collection)

When they were done, we headed back to Bandar Sri D'sara. Now it was the tea ceremony for his side and lunch for all of us. I retired from lunch early so I didn't really know what happened after that. I had a lunch appointment elsewhere.

Much later, when the sun has set, we were out again for the dinner at the Golden Phoenix, Equatorial Hotel KL.

Needless to say, the groom expected all the heng tais to dress to the nines in our suits and ties. He gave us a task to do: we were to be on standby for the 'table to table' yum seng sessions. Our job was to prevent him from getting too drunk. Apparently.

Food was pretty good as expected from Equatorial. I was seated with the usual bunch. Eric gave for the groom's side a humourous speech with the multimedia presentation. The bride's side did a more emotional thing which brought the bride to her teary-eyed wedding moment. Aww...

The yum seng arrived. By that time, T was clearly drunk when he was giving the toast. I think we toasted about 5 times which is the record for any wedding I've attended so far. Bride's dad was up for it as well and did the 'bottoms up' for EVERY toast!

Hmm.... check out the expression on his face

After the yum seng, our call of duty started. There were 10 of us so we were wondering whether to "work" in shifts moving from table to table but we thought it was best to keep the spirits up (pun intended!) and to make it more celebratory. So all 10 of us accompanied the bride and the groom and went table to table to join in the toast. If anything, just to keep the mood up with the volume. We played the number game. The more the merrier. So went table to table. We drank the wine, we refilled our glasses. We drank the wine, we refilled our glasses. We drank the wine, we refilled our glasses. We drank the wine, we refilled our glasses. Repeat.

I don't glasses how many know we had.

We kept refilling.

Any bottles nearby--regardless of whether it was opened or unopened--were used for toasting.

At one point, one of the guys was holding a Glenffiditch and I was getting worried. Then he realised what he was carrying wasn't wine but whiskey. He then put it aside and picked up a wine bottle instead. Between him and another guy, they kept refilling our glasses. Terence also had a bottle in his hand on standby.

We did like what... 24 tables?

One of the 24 tables

(photo courtesy of the bride's personal collection)

One thing I like about wine: you don't get drunk, but it makes you happy.

But we had a wildly good time.

As for Terence, I think he had more than just wine. By the end of the night, while I was talking to him, he lost his balance at one point and had to grab on to the groom's mother who happened to be right behind him. There was also an incident when Terence while posing for photos with the newlyweds in one of the table photos accidentally spilt the wine from the bottle he was carrying on none other than the groom's white suit. WINE ON HIS BRILLIANT WHITE SUIT!!! Then while the newlyweds and their parents were shaking hands with all the invited guests who were leaving, Terence was shaking hands with the staff who were cleaning up the restaurant--one by one. We enjoyed ourselves definitely.

At our own tables... the heng tais were spread out between two tables and this was us.

(photo courtesy of official wedding photo)

Then we got round for a group photo... ok, more than one.

Us

(photo courtesy of ???)

Us clowning around.

Can you see the stain on the groom's suit?

(photo courtesy of official wedding photo)

We sat down for a while to relax and made sure our blood alcohol level normalised first. I guess all of us were/are responsible enough not to drink-drive. Keng the teetotaler was as usual designated driver. He made sure we went back safely.

Then there was the part where we met up again for a mamak session but that is another story...

"Breathtaking"

It's finally out!

After countless hours of singing ourselves hoarse and not getting the desired number of hours of sleep that a human being should, the live worship album "Breathtaking" has seen the light of day.

Even though I'm only one out of the many people involved in this project and though my contributions are somewhat by even my own standards miniscule, I am nonetheless very pleased to have worked on it and at the same time humbled by the whole experience. Thanks be to God.

The album in CD format comes with 3 extra studio tracks and 1 bonus DVD which captures the live recording moments at the church.

(I apologise if my scanner did not produce a clear enough pic of the album cover.)

Sheldon and his merry(making) men

The boys and their drinks

"The boys are out to town".

The date was 14.10.09.

The event: Sheldon's stag night

The participants: Eric, Terence, Kenneth, Stefan, Keng, and myself. (Kenneth only came for half session ie. only for the dinner but skipped the drinking; nevertheless, the party goes on in full swing).

The six

This was part 3 for us: Part 1 was Eric's stag night, and Part 2 was Stefan's.

Somehow it gets a little sleazier all the time. That seems to be the case from Part 1 to 2 to 3 as the years go by. This time, we started with dinner at around nearly 9:40pm at Sri Petaling. Then we took a short drive to Kuchai Entrepreneur's Park for some drinks. We decided to 'open bottle' so we opened a Chivas. Oh yes, there was Coca-Cola and water too.

Apart from Sheldon, why so serious?

It didn't end till close to 3:30am or so I was told. Some of us who were working the following day didn't stay any longer than 2:15am.

Yes, it was a weeknight.

Still we got a few good drinks in.

That's all. Whatever happened there, stays there.

Sheldon and his 1Malaysia / 1Wife / 1Whatever pose.

Thank God for designated drivers who are teetotalers.

This is the one about the cell trip to Kuching

Poser maximus

(photo courtesy of either HP or Janice)

This is way long overdue.

If it were bread, it would've expired and gone all mouldy a long ago. But since they're photos, and photos serve as memory keepsakes, here are the Kuching photos from 12-14 September.

The cell, AJ, went for the cell outing at Kuching, Sarawak -- home of Kian and Jasmine, former workplace of Desmond, and birthplace of Yen Ling. All in all, there were 12 of us who took this well-deserved timeout--Huay Phing, Pauline, Joyce, Janice, Wilson, Ian, Kington, Jessica, Kian, Jasmine, Desmond and me.

Like I said in the last entry, not many good photos of me but these are among the least horrible ones.

Highlights of the trip:

• 5 of out 12 people in the team missing their flight to Kuching (you might think this is me being dramatic but it's true... that many didn't get on the plane for one reason or another)
• Visit to Kian's organic chicken, mutton, and vege farm at Siniawan
• Organic BBQ following the farm visit
• Sarawak laksa and kolo mee
• An expensive entrance free to the Sarawak Cultural Village at Santubong
• The tuak (rice wine) and raisin wine experience at the Bidayuh house
• Shopping for souvenirs (but of course)
• Caving at Gua Pari-Pari (Fairy Cave)
• More shopping for souvenirs

Just arrived at KCH Int'l Airport.

Ian looking like an AirAsia flight inspector.

(photo courtesy of either HP or Janice)

Janice excited over... well, just excited.

I was, however, getting ready to go.

(photo courtesy of HP)

This was our base during the trip--Basaga House

Rented a van and arrived safely at the Sarawak Cultural Village at Santubong,

where the Rainforest World Music Festival is held annually.

(photo courtesy of either HP or Janice)

With Joyce at the Iban longhouse

Friendly-looking decorations at the Iban longhouse

(shrunken skulls... too bad not for sale)

Rumah Tinggi Orang Ulu

At the mural found outside the Orang Ulu house

I can't remember what culture this was (Kelabit? Melanau?) but this was a guy balancing on a pole with his stomach during the cultural show.

This is Janice (spot her!) joining in the dance at the end of the show

This is sarawak laksa.

Take a good look at it. Not easy to come by in the peninsula.

The team regroups for a game of Taboo

Janice and HP doing some retail therapy at the morning market

Team arriving at Siniawan for the visit to Kian's farm and organic BBQ lunch

Wide open spaces of the organic farm

but somehow they like to eat from the same patch

Light coming into the cave

Arch at Kuching Chinatown

Amazing thing was we ran out of time on our flight from KL-Kuching but we had more than enough time to spare on our flight from Kuching-KL. The flight was delayed. Such extremes.

Oh yes, I believe that organic food don't always go well with everyone. While I am totally in support of Kian's endeavour, my eating experience at the organic farm didn't go too well. I had diarrhoea that evening. Apparently, I wasn't the only one. My roommate had diarrhoea too. Perhaps the food was too clean and this was a way for us to detox. Maybe.

Kuching start-stop

I just realised I have yet to put up any photos from my recent Kuching trip in September here.

But then again, it was a good trip with bad photos of me.

Alright, maybe I'll put up photos of sarawak laksa instead...

But I need to find them first.

The Media Carnival that was...

Now that the event has passed and after maintaining some form of silence for a week or so, perhaps it's high time I put some comments in here as the Chairperson of the advisor's/organising committee about the now concluded episode called the SOC Media Carnival 2009.

I'm so glad it's finally all over.

Not to say that I didn't enjoy it. To be honest, I really did enjoy some parts of it. It was downright challenging especially when the gaffer decreed that we had to take matters in our hands and build the entire carnival from scratch within a month. I did thrive on the excitement and thrill of it but then that resulted in sleep becoming a luxury. Working with a team had their initial teething problems as well, but I'm glad that most of it were weathered together despite the many disagreements and conflicts. Anyone who's been at this long enough knows that conflicts are part and parcel of working in teams, and we can't please everyone with the decisions we make. And in all honesty, while working in this committee I was never interested in making popular decisions; I wanted to make the right decisions. Even if it was disagreeable and unpopular to some. That said, I was pleased that most of my decisions--while not being totally perfect--were usually spot-on and had been done with a sense of urgency and of excellence with minimal repercussions.

But to be fair to all who had toiled to put this together, I truly appreciate the effort of all concerned especially in putting together a bigger and better carnival than the one the year before. While size is not always the measure of success, the quality should improve as the years go by. A big thank you to all those who had been a part of this and for being part of the committee and, of course, not forgetting those who had attended. Thank you to all my partnering fellow lecturers in this -- NMH, KK, Azmyl, TK, TY, Ed, NMY, and Philip, who in varying degrees had helped me shoulder the weight of all this. And to the student committee, you know who you are... thanks for your courage, dedication and belief that this project would eventually see the light of day despite the initial hiccups. Thanks especially to God for seeing me through this and for sustaining my health and the extra strength through it all and for increasing my capacity to anchor this event.

But like I said earlier, I'm so glad it's over because now I can get back to my life and do the things I enjoy doing. At one point, I must admit, the Carnival did suck the life out of me. Its demands took its toll on me -- week in, week out. There was this one point when I was juggling the Media Carnival and the regular teaching by day, and the Breathtaking recording rehearsals by night. That was certainly energy-sapping and I was living on three or four hours sleep every night. I'm not kidding here.

Now that it's over, it is not without its pleasant and fulfilling memories. As I was telling some of them who worked closer with me: I believe as we were getting closer to the carnival, we could see the handiwork of our labour coming to fruition. Our work was starting to bear fruits and we could see some results happening in the last two weeks preceding the carnival.

And now it is all said and done.

So now let me present you: the pictures from the Carnival on 3 Oct.

One of the SOC academic staff and management with Allan Wu

(photo courtesy of Raffi/SOC Media Carnival 2009)

With Cecilia, Sue Lynn, and Emily

(photo courtesy of Sue Lynn)

Messing up an otherwise nice pic.

With lil Serene, Miki, and Jerrica.

Charming bunch! ;)

(photo courtesy of Sue Lynn)

with Chenny

(photo courtesy of Sue Lynn)

with Allan Wu, SOC ambassador and host of the Amazing Race Asia

with colleague and local indie artist Azmyl Yunor and Liyana of Estrella, together with NMH and Arul

(photo courtesy of Bryan Lim/SOC Media Carnival 2009)

A B&W one of me and the girls: Tasha, Serene, Cecilia, Catherine and PY.

I have a feeling a lot of guys would have loved to be me in this pic.

(photo courtesy of Sue Lynn)

A lollipop, a pair of drumsticks, a bottle,... so Cat and PY what are you holding?

(photo courtesy of Sue Lynn)

Our post-release article in The Star R.AGe on 7 Oct 2009

(click to view a larger version to read)

(special thanks to Michelle for writing and submitting this)

Caution: Peculiar roadsigns...

... only at Bangsar.

Such was/is the high rate of snatch thievery in Bangsar that they had to put up new and original roadsigns like this along the business and commercial hub of this suburb.

This will be the new tourist attraction of Bangsar -- the "never seen before" roadsigns.

As Ruby made the remark, this roadsign will not be taught to you in your undang-undang (mandatory preparatory classes for Malaysian drivers licence) classes.

Maybe it might be included in the new syllabus.