Category Archives: Travelling

My Yearly Trip To Taylor’s

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On Saturday, I headed to KLCC to er, run some errands. During the awkward distance between post-errand and rock-on-at-Taylor’s-Battle-of-the-Bands, I called a friend. I found an auspicious, less crowded place to chat – the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra entrance, near the RHB Bank. Not only was the air-conditioning auspicious, the flow, was, too! All I had to do was stand in one place, by a pillar too big to hug, and I’d bump into Stephanie, she-robot-trekkie and a mat motor girl who carried an extra helmet in case her friends wanted a ride to the Battle Of The Bands. Unfortunately, mat motor girl hitched a ride on her friend’s now full car, so I had to find my own way again. I found another way to whittle time away, registering to take my driving exam again. From Asia Jaya, I took a bus to Sunway Pyramid. I called Hannna to ask, “Eh which way to walk out to Taylor’s?” How nicely my timing was, and she sent me as she was passing by there, driving rather neurotically.

There itself I met an ultimate lean mean drinking machine and her friend, Ali G, Ian (I didn’t know he read my blog), Frus, Isabella, and undie we-are-rockers-too Shelley and Az.

Oh, and Debbie was one of the emcees! I’d say she did a better job than the female emcees of last year’s. She wasn’t booed badly. Hehe. The sound was worse at the beginning though, and did not do justice to John’s Mistress. Limestone‘s vocals sang (and meant) “sorry I can’t be… perfect.” Mad Fish was cool, with a guitarist singing A Perfect Circle with proper Maynard James Keenan growl (and later a female vocalist who for some reason reminded me of Dee, singing The Darkness – I Believe In A Thing Called Love, which was the point where the crowd started jumping properly.) Versatile was cool too, doing interestingly modified versions of Metallica’s For Whom The Bell Tolls and Fuel, though they either couldn’t find a distortion pedal and used a fuzz pedal, or they had to use the amp’s effects.

The sound system was worse than an average small-time gig… last year’s was better. Funky Dogs was cool, playing Jamiroquai – Canned Heat, while Trash Dogs did Deeper Underground. Beat The System looked the part for their P.O.D. sound. Virtuoso and Larva Eve II did tributes to Guns ‘N Roses (with the latter doing a cool 7-string guitar, 6-string bass solo.) Dragon Red (featuring C. Loco) and Disagree ended the show.

The crowd, despite having a considerable balance of the sexes, was far less considerate than Hoobastank‘s, to my delight. I retired to the backstage (security didn’t care already) and met someone who had been randomly thrown into a MSN chatroom with me by a nefarious dentist-by-day self-promoting rock star. What a small world.

Thankfully, my neck didn’t hurt the next day.

Yes, I have spared you readers the pictures; my el cheapo digicam doesn’t have optical zoom or a proper autofocus system. There was one picture I wish I did take though, during the prize-giving ceremony – it would’ve featured Debbie patting Loco’s bald head as he squatted on stage. The caption would’ve been “Debbie shares a tender moment with Loco on stage.”

Post-exam Update

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Wednesday

I FFKed William for his pre-birthday cheese naan.

My colleague restrung a friend’s beautiful Ibanez GIO RG (as it had rusty strings) but didn’t take into account the complications of a Floyd Rose-style floating bridge. My colleague’s friend apparently stopped going nuts over it after getting an anime-loving girlfriend. They sent the guitar to One Utama and I followed. I did try to call William, but realized that he lost his mobile phone, and was not in the office.

We walked into The Guitar Collection and I described the problem to them. A friendly dude popped a 9 volt battery under the bridge (the bridge now was in a position where the pitch would go down, instead of up as before, when it was not balanced.) Another dude who was jamming on an electric guitar helped him tune it, and when it was done, the dude played squealing harmonic solos ala Pantera. After all that, my colleague thanked the guy and took out his wallet. The dude said it was free. I guess having the oppurtunity to wing the whammy was good enough a reward. (I suppose he didn’t dare try it on the ESP LTD’s lying around.)

Thursday

There was a sense of elated “I’m FREEE!!!” and a sense of impending doom after my final Networking And The Internet exam.

I won a double-pass to the Alien Versus Predator screening in TGV KLCC; although it said 21st August, I tried to claim it right after the exam. As I lined up by myself in the queue, two hot urbanite chicks came up to me:

Chick 1: Hey we have an extra pass for The Sisters. Would you like to buy it?
Me: Er… I haven’t heard of the movie.
Chick 2: We’ll sell it to you cheaper of course.
Me: (looks over a pillar and sees a poster of the movie, thinking “oh it’s a horror movie”) Nah, I have a free tickets to collect.

They then moved on to the next person in queue. At that exact moment I felt immense regret! Dumb idiot!

I should’ve said, “So… which one of you lovely ladies wouldn’t be able to watch the movie?” Argh argh argh. While me going would not guarantee that they’d stay around after to chat, it should still be interesting, since it was a horror movie with a female stranger. Or two female strangers. Ah hell, if one couldn’t make it, the other one was still hot. Dammit. Dammit.

I called my friend that I was supposed to meet for lunch and told her the story. “You see? I sacrificed a movie with strangers for you!” She said she would’ve understood. Grrr.

I then headed over to Do Re Mi in Chow Kit via Monorail, to drool over guitars.



This is the place; it’s as wide as Bentley Music!

Two of the inner rows of guitars, of which loads are Samicks.

B.C.Rich is rare, what more 7-string versions. Sadly neither have floating bridges.

Three VAX 7-string guitars! Shiny and lickable.

The cheapest VAX there.

Yes, I did meet my friend and her taufufa-smashing bunch for lunch after all. Taufufa should not be smashed; it defeats the purpose of these sugar-water-drenched large white clumps!

Oh and I finally uploaded this article:
Hoobastank Live In Malaysia

Small World, Small World

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I’ve met Sarah at quite a few KLue Chillout Sessions and not knew it. (She was my distraught friend’s friend.)

I found out why their friend was also so familiar, two days later, at the Sunday session. Turns out she was a girl we met at an excolleague’s party, where I was used as a scapegoat. (Let’s call him Fei, as his real name; he is shameless and this is a shameless plug!) He was asking her questions about this sweet-young-Mariah-Carey-lookalike, supposedly doing the getting-to-know-you’s for me.

Today was no different; a local rockstar celebrity tried to hit on her. Well for one he didn’t look too rockstar, and I fear revealing too much as these people are all online, and I know just as well as you do that we often find time to do our research.

To my relief, she said that Fei was better at er, flirting.

I found the post-flirt analysis/dissectomy amusing. The rockstar dude asked if she hung out at the mamak. She told him, “no”. This, she said, as we walked to Devi’s Corner where I had my tummy-disturbing cheese naan.

Hmm. She could’ve said, “The Mamak? Is that along Jalan Sultan Ismail (or high-class eatery lane) somewhere? Does it serve escargot? I love Italian food!”

Girls, remember this coverline! It will get you out of mamak dates. Guys, remember that escargot is French, and that the time you save after being rejected could be used by giving me the name and number of the chick who actually reads my blog and uses this coverline.

Now you must be thinking, hey why’d she give her number if she wasn’t interested? She did give the rockstar her number…

Oh, and by Nabila’s request, we have some nicely framed shots of Friday’s gig. Yeah I didn’t post them earlier because I was a 56Ker for a very long time, and I wanted to be considerate.


Azmyl Yunor


Duan of Seven Collar T-shirt


Nabila Nasir the distraught poet


Shelley featuring Az

P.S. Happy birthday to the lickable Jay! Ironically, Sarah’s birthday was the day before, and she recognized Jay from my digicam.

Lamerick

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This entry wasn’t in rhyme format before this. Laugh like you would when you read lame forwarded rhymes.

On Friday Chez picked me up from the office
To Bintang Walk for God forbid we miss
Our distraught friend reading poetry
Using the word ‘distraught‘ in glee

I was made unpivotal to the recital! Someone else was the title.

Of Seven Collar T-shirt there was Duan
He and his guitar, headcount was one
Cool jazz riffs, neat inversions galore
For once their melancholia was not a snore

Saturday I went down to KL Plaza again
For Hoobastank’s Battle Of The Bands
The band with the best playing
Would get to open in the grandstands

I was made a judge quickly
Beside Saiful of Y2K and a Universal lady
Between bands I itched to pick up an electric guitar
And jam with the great masked punk rocker from afar

Alas, to test guitars, we were timid
Much like one church band who hid
In them, the ability to rock out
Like how Linkin-Park-in-Malaysia regulations said “no jumping about”

We were then seen in Coffee Bean, me treated to a White Chocolate Dream.

Lunch was nasi lemak, dinner a chicken burger
Both at the same place at 3:30pm or later
I ran to Low Yat Plaza as the clouds fell
To collect price lists to use as scrap paper as well

New Skin

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Wednesday

I got on an colorful minibus from Subang Parade to Sunway Pyramid. Sweeet! The ride costed 80 sen and took 15 minutes. Very neat. Spiderman 2 was the agenda, with Douglas, Nabila, Chez and I. I enjoyed it, and I could still take the mush (this wasn’t Pearl Harbor man.) A promising sequel was ready, with The Lizard, Doctor Octopus and Hobgoblin in tow, yes?

Thursday

Went to work then to college.

Friday

Met up with Seng Yip to Hartamas for the In The Front Row With Popcorn gig. Bumped into Mellissa there! Took quite a while to register a familiar face.

I didn’t stay till the end so I could catch a taxi without the midnight charge. The taxi driver introduced me to the different parts of Segambut. I never knew anything besides Segambut Dalam and Luar! After what seemed like an eternity of geographical revelation through the bumpy village road, we reached my place at a whopping… RM4.60. For once, I was proud I lived here.

Saturday

Slept whole day. A first for a Saturday, really. Woke up at 10pm and headed out for a Ramli burger and teh tarik dinner. Went home, checked bank balance. Was happy.

Sunday

Played Far Cry to start the day. At midnight. I intend to sleep at the time of writing, but teh tarik, it seems, works now and not in the morning. Oh and I changed the skin to Trained (it was Keyboard from like 20th August 2003!)

Rain Washes

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Saturday
Went for the AXN thing first thing in the morning; bummed around till the end and won an umbrella, mug and army knife. Picture is not of me solving it gloriously and looking to the left, seeing my competitors haplessly catching pieces falling all over.

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Busiest Monday

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Bintang Walk, and a few roads off it, had its busiest Monday, and it was not a public holiday. The cause of traffic jams that was of no consequence to me? HELP Institute’s Fete De La Musique 2004.

This shall be an exercise in linking as much as I can, perhaps in parody of link-everything-overinformatively blogs and websites with too many sponsored links.

I headed there with digicam, printed schedule and map, to Berjaya Times Square first, bumping into Alda and the rest of Dragon Red, including extended family members like Debbie. Syefri was there too, awaiting his turn to not follow schedule.

I headed to Sungei Wang to meet up with Hanna and Carolyn. There wasn’t much there after the Dancing Queens, and so our legs took us through air-conditioned conditions to BB Plaza and then Lot 10 and KL Plaza, bumping into KJ the retired porcupine hair bearer. KL Plaza held no promise, as we headed down Star Hill lane to lead up to Music Exchange. Despite its “Closed Mondays” sign, Hanna left with 7 CDs.

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