My New Year 2012

I apologize to my dear readers for my long silence again. What excuses should I give this time?

I better be honest to say that my lifestyle has changed in 2011 since the day both my aged parents moved to stay in the city. They need to live near us, so that we could help them to run errands and take them for doctor visits. I am happy to be able to care for them, now that they are living in twilight years. I thought I could manage well with my only brother around as my only sister lives in London. Hell no, my idiot brother is more or less living in Bangkok every week running his business. So I am left alone to manage all their weekly doctor visits, besides having to collect medicines to replenish their stock like almost twice a week. That is the amount of medicine in total both my aged parents are consuming. How sad for them. I wish they were just eating M&M sweets!

I had never visited hospitals so often in my life like now and this is scary to me. I keep telling myself that we must exercise daily, eat right food and take sufficient supplements so that we can hopefully remain strong and healthy always. Can we all do that?

I have lined up some new plans and resolution for my new year 2012.

- Come Spring, I will visit Japan together with 5 others for over a week. That will be fun on our own going to Osaka, Universal Studios, Nara, Kobe, Kyoto, Mt. Fuji and Tokyo!

- I want to change all my whole wardrobe to wrinkle-free and iron-free clothes so that I can save time & money for the outside laundry weekly. I can wash them myself & do away with ironing! The total sum of laundry saved yearly might be equivalent to buying return ticket to Hong Kong again. Please tell me where to buy iron-free office wears. TQ.

- My Fitness First membership has been upgraded to 'First Club' status like blogger TZ, so I can sign guests on weekends now. Yay! I will join classes & be healthy.

- I am getting the latest MPV next week so that it can easily carry our racing bicycles!

- Our brand new condo has been completed & sold, hope a trip to London will take place in near 2012.

I am in the mood to celebrate Chinese New Year this year, unlike the previous years. I have ordered so much cookies and bought fresh festive decorations. I will go to bank tomorrow to change the notes for red packet -Ang Pows!

Beware of Highway Robbers

The holiday seasons is here again and most guys would be traveling back homes in their cars. Be sure to check your engine oil and water in radiator which are 2 simplest chores! A couple of days ago, I saw a car which exploded and caught fire! The whole MRR2 was jammed for hours due to busy body motorists like me, slowing down to 'kay-poh', bow, pay respects and take photos! Ha ha ha, that's me!


We've read so much news about accident-robberies lately. I had my own close brush yesterday morning at 9.30am (7/12/11). I just passed Jalan Duta Toll and entered NKVE highway, driving uphill at 120kph speed along the fast lane with many cars.

Suddenly, I saw a head staring at me from my car's front passenger window. It was an Indian man riding a motorcycle so closely and he signaled me to stop my car. I was stunned while eating my bento happily. His hand gestures told me that my front left tire was smelly and emitting smoke! At once, I was suspicious and ignored him, remembering about the spate of accident-robberies. I sped faster and he also rode ahead, still turning his head occasionally to point at my tire. Now my head became unsure whether it was a genuine matter or robbery attempt. Why on earth would this jerk be so kind to risk his life in a high speed manner to notify me?

Anyway, I had a flat tire last week and it was a kind Malay family who signaled to inform me of the real flat tire. So I stopped my car after seeing the Indian motorcyclist was farther ahead of me. I got down from my car and to my horror, the Indian man stopped his bike and made a U-turn back to approach me. He was so swift to park his bike right beside my front left and squatted down to tap my tire to show me. I backed myself and stood far behind my car to take a glance at my tire. I told him that my tire was perfectly fine. He insisted that it was wobbling and emitted bad rubber smell. Next, this persistent man in his 20s stood up & pointed onto the shirt he was wearing to insist that he knows about vehicles. His dark navy blue shirt had plenty of embroidered logos which included Petronas, BMW and many others. Quickly, I just jumped into my car and sped off for my life.

Just 20 meters away, there were other Indian motorcyclists waiting and looking at their comrade haggling with me. I am so glad that I still have all my fingers intact to type this warning.

Pray For Thailand

We all have been saddened by the long flood disaster that has hit Bangkok today. While the water level has dropped significantly in Ayutthaya, the woes in the city of Bangkok remains unsolved. Their Loy Krathong festival has just ended and the Thais were still in the festive mood to place their wishes onto the flower floats down the water everywhere! They did not have to gather at the big rivers or klongs (canal) at all.

Some Thais are angry at the prolonged disaster and blamed the Red Shirts instead besides their weak government as reported in news. I asked a Thai lady the reasons the Red Shirts were being blamed? She pointed out that the Red Shirts had earlier on collected many bags of their own real blood and smeared them around the city including splashing outside ex-PM Abhisit's house at Sukhumvit area. They said their uttered curse was grossly horrible and had brought this disaster in return, as expected to their folklore beliefs. So better not curse anyone as they might work!

I have been gluing to my Facebook everyday to check on the well being of my Thai friends and relatives. I think most of them were badly hit with extensive damages to their houses. Some of them are so wealthy and left their homes submerged while they retreated to their posh condos instead.

I have stolen all the photos from their FB without their permission to share with you all here.

They taught me that when your legs are submerged in murky waters for too long, your skin will peel besides getting bad sores. Their remedy of prevention is to smear their legs and body with cooking oil before wading across the flood waters!

These lady friends still could be in high spirits and jovial mood!

They hired this gorgeous hunky man to build low walls to barricade! He was so hot that the ladies had to post every inch of his movements all over in their FB!! Polygamy is nothing to the Thais sometimes.



This is the typical scene outside their homes and the water does not move at all. The residents would just measure the depth everyday, cm by cm! If it goes down by 1 cm, they would be jubilant and even celebrate!! That is how low they pin their hopes!


This rich family has abandoned their home as the low walls and sand bags could not save the main door. It has reached their gate posts outside.


My friend who is a Merchant Exporter at the Baiyoke Towers rallied people to help make thousands of life jackets ala Cottage Industry style to distribute out.

The flood has badly affected over 9.5 million Thais, young and old ones.

A royalty friend showed the photo near his home where the 2 canals from the North meet days before the whole city was flooded as it was not easy to prevent such a big flow of water.


His mini palace could not be spared too but he did not post his home being flooded later probably due to the electricity being cut off eventually, so no facebook.


This is the daily scene in the back lanes Soi around Bangkok where they have to wade across very dirty and blackish water. How on earth could I swim happily inside those murky waters when I was a kid? Call me stupid then! Ha ha...


Millions of sand bags were being made and sold to barricade all the river banks but with little success.


This photo is most popular inside the Thai Facebooks besides those showing monkey carried a dog and pigs riding boats.

Pray For Thailand.

My 18 Hole Experience

A thousand apologies for disappearing from this blogsphere for so many weeks! I was caught up with my work which was the toughest stint I ever had done in my entire life. I hated every minute of it as I suffered so terribly from tremendous pressure, lack of sleep and no rest with countless skipped meals. Today I have lost over 5 kgs and have been burnt by the sun till I look like OREO cookies!



My company was being roped in at the 11th hour to handle the whole A&P for the recent international golf championship which was being sponsored by our leading bank. We had never done any jobs of that size and amount, not mentioning within 3 weeks!!!

Their other supplier was being dismissed at a very last minute and we went in, not realising it was so scary and life threatening to me. I had sleepless nights and often slept in their clubhouse's sofa or inside my car! I had nightmares when I slept thinking that things went awry and wrong. My whole life turned upside down for once and I wished I had died inside my client's office. I lost count the number of times I scolded my boss too as he was an asshole when I needed his support. On average sense, these jobs would require 3 months and not 3 weeks for sane fellas to cope.




I am glad the 3 weeks nightmare had ended and everything ended up happily and well. I had to monitor close to a 100 workers working in our 2 factories producing all the miracle items on time for this international event. The whole set up was mammoth and mind boggling as everything was being custom made within the shortest time. They demanded perfection as everything would be aired live on TV daily across the USA and other countries too.



This is their Main Score Board and it was the SUPER TOUGHEST item to create as it required so much precision and accuracy. So much tempers and abuses were exchanged to get the 3 giant boards up on time!



Take a closer look to see why it was so tough to design and custom make. The clients were pleased with the results and felt they all looked great & fantastic! You might think that they should use an electronics board instead but I found out that it was not suitable for such golf tournaments as they have too many little scores that need to be changed every other seconds. No way one could just type on the computer to update them as it could be messy.



The tournament was officially kicked off on Thursday by our PM Datuk Najib and the finals was being held 4 days later. The huge crowd fans and supporters turned up eagerly at sunrise! The finals ticket was priced at RM200!! Discounts were given to CIMB and PGA members. Who says our economy was bad?


Many celebrities arrived & turned up in Ferraris, Lamborhginis, Bentleys and Cayennes. The above Hong Kong actress looked familiar and alas, I forgot her name. All the big players who flew in from USA and worldwide arrived like hottest stars with media cameras flashing continuosly and blinded my eyes. Everything was perfected to the finest details with Westin Hotel serving their superb F&B throughout the event. I was running between Westin Hotel and Mines for 3 days overseeing their private function set ups too. It was a great eye opener for me to learn many things.



BMW was one of the sponsors and they generously provided their most luxurious fleets to fetch the players and guests daily. It was like a Hollywood scene where all the best and most luxurious came together amongst the Who & Whos!...



I drove on the buggy car everyday checking on the entire 18 holes fairways and passed the affluent million dollar homes lining on the rolling hills that overlook the beautiful lakes, valleys and it was so heavenly! I asked myself where do these filthy rich families get their money and wealth? Why not ME? The number of cars they parked in their huge basement of their homes sent my eyes popping out of sockets!


This is the home of our former PM! It looks vacant with his collection of cars parked outside. I passed there daily for 3 weeks and it looked idle. Where has he gone to? Hello?


They even have special boats to ferry the special guests to watch the players closely from the waters! This is indeed the playground for the Rich & Famous!



I looked at this 6 Star Hotel and felt that it has lost its shine and glory, for reasons unknown to me.


Along the way, I bumped into a Thai comrade who is the TV Star and host for the Sports Channel Of Thailand. You might wonder why I didn't post any photos showing the players teeing off? Well, no one was allowed to click photos when the players needed the fullest concentration. Only media team were allowed to do so but using zoom lenses from far.


When the game finally ended, our handsome King arrived in his special yellow buggy car that was named "ROYAL 1".



Our King presented the championship prize of US$1.3 million to Bo Van Pelt from USA!



This lucky man was leading for the last 2 days before finals and we felt he could win as he was the BEST without doubts! Congratulations to this almost 7 footer player!


My brains and soul are not back into normal mode yet, so need to catch some more sleep!

Welcome To Ha'adyai

My recent trip to Ha'adyai in South Thailand was an eye opener since my last trip was some 10 years ago. However, it was a pleasant reunion for the entire family again after almost 20 years! So much has changed with new hotels, shopping hubs and highways.

Let me share with you the correct spelling and pronunciation of this town as many friends often checked with me on its accuracy. It should be spelled as "Ha'adyai" instead of Hatyai. It is pronounced as Hard-Yai. It means Big (Hard) Town (Yai)... Yes, it is Big Town! It was the biggest town in the Souths during the early days when there were no other towns nearby besides their capital city of Bangkok.

It was their no-ending GRAND SALE in Amazing Thailand as usual. Their commercial ads do look catchy and bright like this shopping bag above.

They have many arches and street corners displaying their love and respect for their monarch. However, their streets are still congested with motorcycles and tuk-tuk (mini taxis) roaming in notorious manners. Some have not changed in their bad driving manners when they emphasized too much with their daily greetings and polite gestures. How contrasting! Faintz!


I love their street lamps very much which looked so graceful and artistic. I almost got knocked down by a car for staring up at their street lamps for too long! LOL.




There was another GRAND SALE shopping bag in another street with a huge Coca-Cola bottles beside. I thought I saw a similar bottle in Phuket Island too.

This is one of the shopping street off their 3 main roads which is named after my very distant relative - Niphat Uthit 1, 2 & 3. Malaysians often described Ha'adyai as a small town with these 3 main streets only. The above photo shows the Central Department Store with its Thai flags on the left and the hotel on the right is famous for being big, nice and haunted. The haunting rumours started when it was flooded until water seeped below into their basement car parks where over 10 victims were trapped and drowned in their cars! So scary!

This is what I mean by congested! They drove super fast and tailed behind by inches! Seriously scary!


Look at how the tuk-tuk driver came up close to our knees! My face turned pale in fright. That idiotic tuk-tuk driver just laughed when I snapped this photo. My knee is the right one and the right big chunk belongs to my Swedish brother-in-law.



This is their famous must-visit market which houses all the tiny stalls selling clothes, faked brands and Thai food stuffs! Wear light clothings when you visit that place as it is often humid and crowded where your body will easily rub other bodies! I was often bodily molested by fat old aunties!


Their display of colourful clothes often lured ladies to shop and bargain like zombies. They often ended buying what they don't need. That must be the work of Thai charms!


The hawker food is a tempting fare. Look at their huge friend prawns and crispy chicken wings that go well with their white glutinous rice! Oh Mama, so yummy dei!....



I took the city view from my cousin's hotel room. I am waiting for him to finish his full refurbishing before snapping his new-look HOTEL. I wonder if he will take another 10 years?



Instead of having breakfasts at the hotel, I preferred to walk to the back lane to order take-aways from this stall which catered to a wholesale market's vendors. They sell very cheap drinks and Thai cakes where I could order 2 tall cups of delicious Thai Iced Coffee with chicken rice and Thai cakes. All for less than 50 bahts!!! Seeing is believing - Amazing Thailand!

The New President

It was a joyous celebration for our Tan clans in Singapore over the victory of Uncle Tony. It was a tough fight that he narrowly won the presidential race! We hope to see better progress for the republic. Not too long ago, he slipped into Penang quietly for a vacation with his family and my parents took them to eat ice kacang and char koay teow at the famous former Great World Park. He was still his humble self and enjoyed the simple hawker food.

Congratulations to Peter and Sharon on the victory of your daddy.

Festive Hampers

The long holidays will be coming very soon, that is next week! Many people are applying for 2 days annual leave to enjoy a whole 9-day long holiday in Malaysia! The traffic here is getting mad with jams all over the bustling Kuala Lumpur city. The heavy downpour and flooding adds more chaos and tension to road users. I have seen the tow-truck drivers making a roaring business! They are waiting eagerly everyday at the accident prone areas like hungry vultures! My friends, drive safely and please do not speed like a racing devil.

On the lighter side, I went to collect some festive hampers yesterday for my tyrant BOSS who spent a total sum of RM2,890.00.
I had a big shock of my life to see one unique hamper! Take a look yourself and tell me if you understood my shock!

Happy Holidays My Dear Bloggers!

What did you see?