Princess jumped in excitement so Ming tried to help her win it. He ended up spending something like RM30 without managing to get it in the end.

5) Then we popped by this candy shop that made tiny cylinder shaped lollipops which started off with this big piece of candy glob.

Then they shape up pieces of it into rods and heat it up to harden it.

The end result is little candy like that.

6) Having seen enough candy, we went for ice-cream!!!

7) Friday came and we spent much of the day in a little workshop our Aussie Nuffies were conducting. Ming and I watched as David gave a presentation about Nuffnang.

David is very very experienced in digital media, having worked in the industry for many years before Nuffnang. Was so interesting watching how someone else presented Nuffnang.

8) After the workshop we opened the doors that led to this nice chill-out area with a fireplace. Just to have drinks and chat.

9) For dinner on Friday night, I met up with my friend Hsin Yi and her boyfriend Brad. She took us to this really really quaint Japanese fusion restaurant somewhere on Liverpool Street. One thing I like about Melbourne is these really small restaurants with only 5-6 tables that you’ll find down some alley.

Had a lot of raw food (something I never really eat much of) but it was nice. 

Both Pierre and Lay See studied in Melbourne for years but Lay See is apparently the only one who knows Melbourne well. Pierre apparently spent most of his student life in Melbourne watching free -to-air TV (that’s right… not even cable TV). So I guess they complemented each other well. Lay See knew where to go in Melbourne and Pierre always knew what was on TV! I bet he knew his TV schedule so well he knew exactly what time he had to turn on the TV to watch a Dove commercial or something.

11) Lay See decided to take the girls shopping. So shopping we went.

I was enthusiastic at first. But it quickly wore off. You know when you tell people that you’ll bring your gf shopping and carry her bags you feel proud of yourself.

Then I would spend like an hour following Princess around while she picks clothes and I soon realize that I lose focus. It’s just something the male mind often fails to concentrate on. Especially when Princess asks me a million times about whether I like a particular dress. And when I say “YES“. 

She picks the OTHER dress. But she doesn’t buy it on the spot. No no… that would make the shopping experience too easy. She would say “Okay let me go look around first to see if I find something better”.

Then she goes around to look for something better (and never finding it) and eventually decides to walk back to the same shop we were at an hour ago. By then, probably like 20 minutes walk away or something. Ahh that is…. the National Service experience of following your girlfriend shopping.

Fortunately with technology, men find things to do. I ended up playing Paper Toss on my iPhone.

While Princess browsed through her clothes.

The salesgirl walked past and saw me playing the iPhone. She said “Oh how fun” but deep inside I knew she felt my pain.

12) After a while I gave up and went outside the shop to wait with the rest of the guys. They looked very bored. Pierre was playing table tennis on his iPhone and Ming was looking… well.. angry.

Soon enough, Princess was done.

And we all went for dinner at Pacific Seafood where Ming said he had the Best Lobster Noodles. We all went to bed early that night. Because the next morning, Ming demanded we all be up at 7AM to go for a road trip. We managed to get up that morning… but with Princess feeling so grumpy it looked like she would punch an elf for the fun of it.

To be continued…

Will blog about that soon 🙂

This is me getting drinks for my guests at my kitchen.

This is me entertaining my guests on my balcony

This is me watching football with my friends.

This is me deciding what to wear on my dinner out in my huge ass walk-in closet.

This is me reading a book in my bedroom while waiting for Princess to get ready.

This is me relaxing in my living room on a nice Sunny Sunday afternoon

This is me in my home office at home where I do some work over the weekends.

This is me taking a crap in my nice beautiful toilet.

This is me scolding my son for having an untidy room….

And this is my living room with…. With some strangers in it.

Ok fine… I’ve snapped out of it. This beautiful exclusive condo isn’t mine *cry
Last week Selangor Dredging Berhad invited me to view the show units of their new development in SS2, Petaling Jaya. Desmond and Paul came along as well for the little advertorial adventure. We were given a tour by a nice lady named Lina.

Just listening to Lina, you could feel the passion she had for the development that was called Five Stones.
Everything down to the principle of it.

Each stone in the name was meant to represent the 5 precious values that create a great living experience: A spacious home, a lot of outdoor space & facilities, the sense of a community to grow up in (where you would know your neighbors’ well), getting to spend quality time with the family and being in the middle of all the action in PJ. The sculptures in front of the show room represent the Five Stones.

I thought the facilities were really cool: the gym, the sports complex, the huge swimming pool but what caught my attention was this modern looking playground from Denmark apparently meant for kids.

Heck even swings these days have gone modern. Look at this!

I was sitting there for like a minute trying to figure out how to “play it” when the security guard came over and spun me round and round. My guess is he was probably playing a lot of it to become the expert he was.

But as much as I thought all that was cool, the most important thing to me was the space. The units I saw were about 1.800 sqf & 2,400 sqf which is a lot of space for a Condo. Yet, it’s only about RM450 per square feet so the price of the unit starts from about RM 800k. In some other areas around the Klang Valley they sometimes cost 50%-100% more than this.

My Hong Kong friend Joe was down from Hong Kong. I showed him photos of this apartment and told him how much it cost he was shocked. “RM 1,000,000 will get you nothing in Hong Kong” he said. Then again, Hong Kong’s property prices are just insane!

I don’t know whether it’s something you experience when you grow a little bit older but I kinda grew to like shopping for houses (or at least looking for them). When I was younger, I only thought about buying cars. How it would be nice to have a Lamborghini… but somehow those luxuries don’t matter as much to me now.

*looks at picture of the beautiful car*
Okay fine… I mean the Lamborghini is really nice but it still don’t really matter as much.
What matters to me now is the home that I choose to buy and stay in for the rest of my life. 

When I think about this home, I think about the memories I will have in my many years staying in it and I think of the kids that I will eventually raise in this home and the memories that they will have in that home.

Then I think of how that home will always leave a mark on my life, more than a car or any other material thing will. Growing up, I will always have a nostalgic feeling towards the home I grew up in, but not as much of a feeling towards the car my Dad used to drive us around in.

So now every day when I save as much money as I can, believe it or not I’m not saving towards buying a nice car or to go for a luxurious holiday somewhere. I’m saving to be able to buy a nice home one day. There are so many nice homes out there….

The Five Stones development is one of them.
I guess that’s why according to Lina they’ve sold over 65% of their units just a week after launching.

I think I’ve found a new hobby… looking at beautiful homes and dreaming of buying them. I just gotta make sure I start saving enough money to have one of these beautiful homes some time in the future.

If you already have saved enough and are looking to buy a beautiful home… you can check out Five Stones here.

Thank you for showing us around Lina.

So last weekend I made it to the closest Gap store to my home. The one at Pavilion.

Princess, who also doubles as my fashion consultant came along with me. I’m not allowed to shop for clothes without her for fear that I might end up buying jumpers and looking like a hillbilly.

I remember the first time she came into my room. She headed straight for my closet and then she went through everything, putting together a small pile of clothes. Then she pointed at the pile and said “This… is what you are allowed to wear from now on. If I see you wear anything else….”.

That is how she officially became my fashion consultant.

Anyway, I had never been to the Gap store in Pavilion before.

It’s pretty big!

And with clothes everywhere.

Having RM1,000 to spend in a store filled with clothes is like the shopaholic’s wet dream. I was spoilt for choice but I made a dash first for their new 1969 Premium Jeans’.

Heck I wear jeans every day. I wear it on weekdays to work and on weekends to wherever I go. It’s like the most versatile form of pants. You can wear it for anything and you don’t have to worry if you spilt anything on it. They’re hardy, comfortable and they work for everything.

To satisfy my jeans appetite at Gap, I tried on jeans after jeans….

There was straight cut, standard, loose and a lot more but soon enough I had found a winner. Or more like two winners.

the “Authentic” cut which had only just been launched.

They were really nice. I mean they were really comfortable, fit well and I really liked the cutting of them both. The length of the Standard cut was a little too long for me though, so I got the really helpful staff at Gap to help me alter it.

After I had gotten my hands on 2 pairs of jeans, I attacked the shirt department.

Check out a couple of the shirts I bought.

Princess said she liked shirts with white collars so I also got this.

Heck it’s like I have a whole list of things that Princess likes and does not like to see me wear. I know she likes shirts and t-shirts but she doesn’t like collared-t’s. She also does not like (or more like hate) any shirts with stripes on them. It took me a long time to learn all that.

Both the shirts though were stamped with Princess’ approval.

She said they were really nice and she also particularly liked this shirt.

Went well with my new Gap jeans.

Then I got a bit more ambitious and decided to try on a Gap hoodie.

When I put on the hood and pulled the strings to tighten it, I ended up looking like this.

Princess thought it was funny so she took a picture.

After what was like… 45 minutes in the store. I settled on what I’ve decided to spend the RM1,000 on.

Went to the counter and it turned out to cost more than the RM1,000 of vouchers I was given.

I had to make a choice…. Take out something from Gap pile or…. pay the extra in cash.

I decided that… you just can’t let nice clothes go to waste. So I ended up paying close to a hundred bucks more. It was totally worth it though. Got some really really really nice clothes then. It’s true. I’ve started thinking like a Shopaholic. I blame Princess!!!!

After we were done shopping, Princess and I went downstairs to look for the person who made this little fun shopping experience possible. We found her in this big Gap truck parked outside for anyone to go in and try on the new 1969 Premium Jeans.

The nice lady’s name is Jeanine.

They were having a little contest in the truck where they put up pictures of people holding up a white board to say what they were “Born to be”.

Gap jeans are born to fit… but we had a lot of people with different things altogether.

Princess liked this one though.

I think she could relate 🙂

Princess and I had an idea. We decided to write the white board for each other. So on her white board I wrote (with my poor handwriting and my pathetic attempt at drawing a heart)…

And on mine she wrote.

I got Jeanine to do one too. Wrote this on her board.

And yes if you’re wondering why the hand-writing on Jeanine’s white-board is so much nicer. It’s because it was written by Princess. Even the small little t-shirt on it was drawn by Princess.

Before we left the truck, they gave us some souvenirs including the pictures we had just taken a few minutes ago.

I thought it was really thoughtful.

We left the truck then to go back to the store and pick up my altered jeans but not before I took this last picture with Jeanine and Claire from Gap.

By the time I got back to the store to collect my jeans, they were all ready.
They fit perfectly.

Thank you Gap… for the wonderful shopping experience. And for some really really nice jeans 🙂

If you’re a fan of Gap, you can join their Facebook group here. I’m already a fan!

Do you guys recognize anyone?

Project Alpha is going to be out in September so remember to catch it then. I hope it will be as fun watching it as it was fun making it.