October Revolution

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Philip

September was a glorious month for me. Here are the highlights:

Bought my birthday present (the Canon PowerShot SX120 IS) way ahead of schedule. Yes, I was naughty, so what?
The Piano Idol finals at the Copthorne Orchid Hotel—it was the second time I was asked to judge, and I was very pleased with the overall standards. Will there be a third time for me? Dunno.
The BBQ gathering at the Pau’s residence was awesome. Lots of food and drink and nice company.
My 49th birthday of course, on September 26. And the crème de la crème was spending a night at the E & O Hotel, coupled with an unforgettable buffet breakfast the next morning. What a blast! Er…Mike, if you’re reading this–can I do it again, soon?

Now here comes October (or what’s left of it, almost halfway through) and—blech, nada, nothing much happening. There are peaks and there are valleys, I suppose. Here are some “exciting” things (yes, I’m being sarcastic here, hee hee) that I’ve been doing to keep myself preoccupied:

Relearning some classical pieces from the past. See this post.
I’m still contemplating about giving my website a total makeover. It’s beginning to fill with cyber cobwebs and someone said it’s high time I gave it a good spring-cleaning.
I’m trying to get my blog-writing juices running again. Hopefully this post is a sign of more stuff to come.
Bought Avira’s Antivir Premium antivirus locally. Pretty decent price ($13 USD) for a 13-month license. I’ve also downloaded and installed Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) which is a neat antispyware program. It’s free and except for a strange quirk (which I’ll explain in a later post) I like it.
Christmas rehearsals for the lighting of the Christmas Tree at the hotel are due to start this Friday October 16th. Time flies.
Catching up with some of the current movies. I prefer to watch them on DVD because I despise the censorship in the cinema halls. Some movies I’ve watched and enjoyed include: State of Play, Obsessed, 12 Rounds, The Taking of Pelham 123, Terminator Salvation, and Star Trek. The last one is simply amazing—I’ve been a Trekkie all my life and J.J. Abrams did an excellent job with the retelling. Looking forward to the sequels!

So there you have it. Aside from eating my oats, doing my laundry, having leftovers for lunch, paying the monthly bills (ugh), teaching students, I lead a pretty exciting life huh. Until the next post, this is Philip, signing off.

BBQ Bonanza

Posted on September 21, 2009 by Philip

I received an invitation to a barbecue recently, from Sue and Mrs. Pau (proud parents of the Piano Idol winners). It was held yesterday at the Pau’s residence, so I thumbed a lift from fellow teacher Ricky, with two bottles of red wine and my Canon in hand. We arrived at the venue, the weather was lovely, and oh my gosh, I’d never seen so much food in my life! These two wonderful ladies (pictured below) were certainly going to ensure that everyone was going to have a good time that evening.

And what about the food? How do I start…well we had pork ribs, chicken, Thai salads, Belacan Rice, Spaghetti, desserts, and not forgetting to mention the copious amounts of soft drinks, beer, and wine (thank you, Mr. Pau) I must have had at least three glasses of wine but I was stone-cold sober—and I wasn’t driving anyway, lol. The chicken was gone in a matter of minutes!

But the surprise of the evening were the cakes (courtesy of Ricky). Not one, but two—and they were delicious (from Ritz Pastry again) Word got round that my birthday was just around the corner so they “cornered” me and sang the birthday song for me at full force—it was fabulous! Thank you so much!

We didn’t disperse until after 11 pm or so, and Mr. and Mrs. Pau insisted that I take some leftover food home—spaghetti (thanks to the Kuans), pork ribs, some mangos and dessert. I didn’t wake up with a hangover today, but I sure had a good workout—morning walk and 30 laps in the pool. And then lunch consisting of spaghetti and pork ribs, what a life!

I am very touched by the gracious warmth and hospitality of the Pau family, Sue and her family, and Mr. and Mrs. Kuan. The whole residence looked like a mini Las Vegas, except that it was all laptops and gaming consoles all over the place, the kids were living it up after the school exams, and everyone was having a good time. The kindness that these people have shown me will remain in my memory for a long, long time.

More pictures and writeups from Sue (my friend and fellow blogger) at her blog here.

My morning walk: a photo documentary

Posted on September 7, 2009 by Philip

Since I’ve already got my birthday pressie, I decided to test it out and document my morning walk route. This isn’t going to win any Pulitzers but you never know. For the curious among you, I got myself a Canon Powershot SX120IS, a new 10-megapixel camera with 10X optical zoom, 3” viewfinder, etc. Looks like they’ve thrown even the kitchen sink in. I’ll be posting a review of this wonderful camera in a later post.

Walking out of my apartment. The government builds wide roads, and what do these locals do? They park on both sides, that’s what.

This is where I start my morning walk. This road is rather free of traffic, except for the occasional car. Today appears to be another dull and hazy day, but the morning air is still fresh.

Here’s a picture of Malaysia’s national flower, the Hibiscus.

Walking up north from my apartment. There’s a gradient increase of 20°or so. And yes, there are just too many high-rise apartments. Penang is an island, so nowhere to go but up, I suppose.