So okay a few days ago I took a 2 hour drive from Vancouver all the way to the famous Whistler Mountains. Whistler is apparently the best ski resort in the world and quite a popular place among Malaysians for skiing during the winter.

Yes I’m told that during winter it’s crowded with rich Malaysians all going to ski.

In Summer instead where the place is less popular, poor Malaysians like me go to visit the place.

Naturally nobody goes there during the summer since THERE IS NO SNOW.

Well fine, some people do go but it’s mainly for mountain biking down the huge slopes.I was there more as a tourist to look around and well do a request from KY and KS.

Yes, I’ve been asked to go around to take pictures of Canadian chicks by some of my readers. KY included.

I can say this… Vancouver is full of really really great looking girls. I mean I would say at least 40% of the population here is Asian but when I say Asian, it’s mostly Korean. And Korean girls are hot.On top of that the Canadian girls here are hot too… but I didn’t manage to take many pictures of them mainly because… when they walk past, I’m too stunned to whip out my camera and secondly because… SHY LAHH.. after people think I what.

So here are whatever random pictures I managed to take.
And here’s of one of the very nice waitresses at a restaurant I went to.

Over here, it’s almost compulsory for people to tip at restaurants because there is no 10% fixed service charge like in all the restaurants we go to in Malaysia.

It is customary to tip anywhere at least 10-15% of the total bill but as a result of that, most of the time you get really great service.

I had dinner with Adrian last night and one of the nice waitresses there even left us this bill.

Notice the heart she drew on the bill. How do you not tip someone who draws a heart shape on your bill?

*I just got back to Malaysia btw 😛 Woohoo so nice to be home

I LUP OREO I LUP OREO I LUP OREO I LUP OREO I LUP OREO!!!!

If anyone ever asked what was my favourite cookie of all time, it’s gotta be Oreo. Heck, Oreo is a part of my life, much like other things I grew up with like Milo, Ribena and ICE-CREAM!!!

I remember how I used to steal Oreos from the jar when I was a kid, hoping my mum would never find out (though she always did because she loved them too and she almost took a mental stock count of the Oreos every day).
Then there was when I went to the UK to study alone. Being overseas can be depressing sometimes seeing that everything is different and it feels good sometimes to have some things that remind you of home.

I remember when I had my first Oreo there, I had a little quick flashback of myself being in my home in Penang munching on my jar of Oreos… far far away from that cold and tiny apartment I lived in in London. It felt nostalgic, and it felt good!

What I later learned about Oreos is that different people tend to have different ways to eat it.

The original Oreo has a traditional routine where to eat an Oreo, first you:

1) TWIST – Twist both cookies apart to open it
2) Lick – Lick the cream
3) Dunk – Dunk the Oreo into milk
Well… I have my Oreos differently and it’s something I have carried on with me since I was a boy.

Here’s how I have my Oreos.

First I twist to take off the top and bottom.
Then … I don’t “LICK” the cream… no I don’t…. I scrape the entire thing off and put the cream all in my mouth.

I let the cream then slowly melt in my mouth…. Yummmmm.Then only do I go for the remaining biscuits.

Now Oreo seems to have a tendency of knowing what people want. Addicted to the cream in between the cookie, I never seem to get enough of it.

So you can imagine, when I first started eating Oreos when I was young, it was okay.

Then… they came out with the DOUBLE STUFF OREOS… and holy crap were they good!
AND NOBODY HAD BETTER CALL ME FAT!!!!!!
Anyway before I end, I’m gonna do a poll on my blog sidebar among my readers.

Tell me how you guys have your Oreos.

Do you:
a) Twist, Lick and Dunk
b) Twist, scrape off cream and swallow cream.
c) Eat it like a regular cookie.

Do the poll on my sidebar.

I lup my Oreos.

Just yesterday I was walking around Vancouver with my friend Adrian who works in Vancouver

The destination was Stanley Park, one of the well-known parks in Vancouver.

The plan was to go there, rent a couple of bikes and cycle around to get some exercise.

On our way to the park we stopped by a convenience store for me to buy a drink and for Adrian to buy himself some ice-cream.

I bought myself a Dr. Pepper, one of my favourite drinks that I was once addicted to in the UK.
My brother and everyone else thinks that it takes like cough syrup but if that’s really it, then it’s really nice cough syrup.

When I paid for my drink I asked the cashier if he could give me a plastic bag for me to keep my bottle and that was when Adrian asked me

“Why the hell do you need a plastic bag?”

I don’t know about everyone else but when I walk around I prefer to carry a bottle in a plastic bag rather than carry it by hand, just feels a lot easier that way.

I explained that to him but he continued to bug me
“But… it just makes it so much harder to carry your bottle”.So I got a little annoyed and decided to explain my reasoning in an anology that maybe Adrian might understand
“Look…. let me put it in other words. Why do you carry your balls in a ball sack? Why not just carry it around in your hands when you walk around?”

Adrian paused for a minute and then went on to say
“Well my balls are balls. I mean it’s like.. if I carry them around in my hands and I drop them that it’ll be like “WTF?!?!… I don’t wanna risk dropping my balls”.

I smiled at him and said
“Well I don’t wanna risk dropping my Dr. Pepper”.
Anyway soon enough we grabbed our bikes and put on our helmets.

Yes in Canada it’s apparently the law to wear a bicycle helmet while cycling and yes… I do notice that I look rather silly in one.Armed with my helmet we cycled all around the park for two hours, stopping every now and then to check out beautiful expensive cars parked by the side of the road

or stop for Adrian to realize that we’re lost and for him to whip out his map.

When Adrian gets lost, he puts on a rather funny thinking face.

He stops, looks at the map for a while then goes
“Hmm.. hmmm.. hmmmm….”

Then you almost see a lightbulb light up above his head and he puts on his helmet and says
“OK JOM LETS GO!”Our bicycle trail made it all around from parts of the city,

through the park and all the way around a nice seaside trail like this along with other cyclists and roller bladers.

At the end of the afternoon I had a great exercise and you know what’s the best part of cycling in this part of the world?

Eventhough it’s summer, it’s not humid or too boiling hot. In fact it’s pretty cooling so you actually don’t sweat so much and you can feel good about having done some exercise.

Ahh… I wonder what tomorrow will hold for me.

I have a few really great friends here in Vancouver, Canada so since I’m halfway around the world here I thought I might as well pay them all a visit.I paid a visit to this friend of mine whom I will here call Jeff.

Jeff is an old KL friend of mine whom I met in college. He picked me up from my hotel and took me around Vancouver. At the end of the day, we ended up on a rocky beach chatting while watching the sunset. It’s summer here and during summer here the sun sets at about 9 to 9.30pm, very unlike back home in Malaysia where by 7.30pm it’s pretty dark already

Anyway while we were sitting on the beach we started talking about One Night Stands that Jeff had been having in his many years in Vancouver. Here’s roughly how our conversation went.

Me: How did you start doing all this? I thought you were a goodie goodie virgin boy back in KL?

Jeff: Yeah since I came here, everyone drinks a lot and beer makes you do silly things.

Me: So how does it work?

Jeff: I thought you know these things!

Me: No man!!! Unfortunately I don’t.

Jeff: Well the clubs here are different from the clubs back home. Back home only a minority dance and everyone else just poses around their tables with their drinks acting cool. Here everybody dances and there is a lot of physical contact. So you go to a club, meet a girl there, dance dance grind a bit and then get her number.

Then the next time there is a frat party or something you invite her to it and after the party it happens.

Me: So how many girls have you shagged while since you’re here?

Jeff: Ermm let me think… *Ponders and looks at the sea for a while* Jeff: Well there’s Singapore, China….

Me: Wait wait.. what’s this?

Jeff: Oh I try to remember them by the countries they’re from.

Me: WHAT?! Hahaha ok ok fine fine. Go on.

Jeff: Okay there’s Singapore, China, Brunei, Hong Kong, Canada…

Me: *interrupts* WAHLAU!!! What the hell is this? The United Nations?

Jeff: No lah… that’s about it already. Just those countries. And there was actually almost a Columbia but haih… screwed up that one.

Me: Why what happened? Jeff: Well there were two sisters there, one of them was quite pretty and the other wasn’t. I was hitting on the less prettier one because I thought she would be easier but turns out the prettier one was the one interested in me. Haih!

Me: So are any of these other girls hot?

Jeff: No! Arrgghh!! Like I said, I banged them all because I was high on booze and you get “beer goggles” when that happens.

Me: Not even the Canadian one?

Jeff: No man. She was really really fat.

Me: WHAT?!?! THEN HOW DID YOU….

Jeff: *interrupts* I said BEER GOGGLES LAR DIU!!!

Okay here’s one thing about my family.

We’re a very very close knit family so much that if anyone anywhere in the world gets married, the whole family takes leave (almost compulsory) and flies over to wherever that is to attend the wedding.

One of my cousins who live on the other side of the world is getting married this Saturday so…. Wednesday this week I flew to Singapore to catch a transit flight to that country.

Since I was in Singapore for a night for transit, the airline was nice enough to give me my own room to stay for the night.
The room is pretty nice with everything you can ask for in a hotel room.

A nice comfy bed that is huge for one person.

and a great room safe to keep whatever little valuables I have.

But there’s one thing that annoyed me a little.

The internet connection there costs S$0.50 per minute. Grr… I really hate it when hotels charge you a bomb just to use the internet especially when it’s almost essential for someone like me to stay connected.

No I don’t go online to surf Facebook or watch YouTube videos… I go online because I have to catch up on my work. That’s one great thing about working in a Dotcom, you can bring your work anywhere with you… as long as there is reasonable internet access.

I mean it’s okay if you charge say RM15 bucks a day or something but most of the time it goes to at least RM50 per day or more.

Anyway, the next morning I got myself to Changi airport for my long flight.

The flight took me 16 hours… plus 1 hour transit time in Seoul but soon enough I got there.

So guess where I am everybody!!!Haha I’m in …. Vancouver, Canada for my cousin’s wedding.

This is my first time in Canada and I just have to say that… the flight is just wayyyy too long! When are they gonna invent teleportation dammit!

I’ve gotten used to flying say 13 hours when I was studying in London but 15 hours plus an hour transit in Seoul is just too much for me to take.

Seeing how nice the place is though, I guess it’s worth it. The weather is just wonderful here.

It’s Summer now and it’s not too hot or anything, in fact when you walk outside on the street it feels like you’re walking around in an air conditioned room.Nice and cooling. Ahhh!

And here’s the best thing.

I’m staying in this nice little apartment in the city that is not too expensive.

There’s a nice living room.And a nice bedroom too.

And here’s the best part…. there’s Wi-Fi throughout the apartment and it’s… FREE!!!

THAT’S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE!!!

Will blog more about Vancouver in the coming days when I get to see more. I just got here today. Ahh so tired now. Wanna sleep.

Catch you guys later!

End of this month, Chelsea F.C. is coming to Malaysia to play FOOTBALL with us Malaysians.

Yes they are… yes they are!

You’re probably wonder why all of a sudden I’m blogging about this.

Well the truth is, Heineken just recently sponsored me 5 tickets (worth RM100 each) for Chelsea to give away to my dear readers.

And it’s not just 5 tickets to watch the match but these tickets actually give you an exclusive invite to Heineken’s Hospitality Tent where there will be free food, drinks, Heineken beer and great music.So that’s 5 tickets.. for so many of you guys out there so I started thinking of how I could really narrow it down.

I thought maybe I’d give the 5 tickets to the first 5 of you who say to me
“Timothy!!! You damn hemsem today.. and you’ve LOSS SO MUCH WEIGHT!!!”But then I thought that wouldn’t really do Heineken or Chelsea much good.

So I’ve decided to give the tickets away to the true Chelsea fans out there.Okay so I had an idea…
You know how every football club has their own song.

Well for Chelsea it’s “Blue is the colour”.

Now all you have to do is do a short video of you singing the song with a bottle of Heineken in your hand.

And I’ll pick the funniest two and the best one gets 3 tickets while the second best one gets 2 tickets.

I may and probably will post your videos up on my blog for everyone here to see ok? Hahaha don’t worry.. nobody reads my blog 😛

HAhahahahaha I can’t believe I’m gonna make you guys SING!!!!! I know I know I’m so evil.

I’m going for the Chelsea match myself so if you want to hurt me in any way, you can do it there okay?

Do the videos, upload them on YouTube and send me the links at lengmoublogs@yahoo.com by the 20th of July 2008.

The very nice people at KLue were nice enough to write about me in the latest issue of KLue Magazine.

If any of you guys have a chance, do check it out (It’s a two page article but I’m not going to put up the second page where most of the text is so if you really wanna know what it says go check out the magazine ok?)

My brother tells me that he really likes the way this article is written since it’s written in a very much lifestyle point of view as a person.

As for me… well.. I don’t know.

The first line of the article reads.

“Timothy Tiah is a very nice man. The type you would definitely want to be friends with.”

I read that out to my friend Leon at MPH and winked at him a few times but all he said was
“HMPPPH!!!”

Haha!!

Okay here’s the story.

One of my buddies here in Penang stays in an area where in order to get there, you actually have to go through some rural jungle road.

If you drive down that road often enough, you’ll see see something you don’t usually see anywhere else.

Once it was late at night and I was driving down the really dimly lit road when suddenly I saw a huge snake crossing the road. When I say huge I meant it was fat as anything and its length was from one end of the road to the other.

I didn’t manage to stop in time so I quickly just ran over it and it felt as if I ran over some speed bump.Too bad I didn’t actually get to take a picture of that snake but man it was huge.

The funny thing is the next morning I drove down that same road and the snake was gone!

Heck if I ran over a person with my car he would be dead for sure but that wasn’t enough to kill this huge snake!

Anyway just today I was driving down that same road again when I saw a huge lizard casually taking his time to cross the road.
Heck fair enough it doesn’t look that big in pictures but if you were there and you could see it in detail, man it made me stop my car just to take a look.

I whipped out my phone and started snapping away.

At one point it stared at me with one of its eyes as if it was going to pounce on to my windscreen.

Too bad I was alone and had no one to share the moment with. After admiring it for like 2 minutes and after waiting for it to cross the road I drove away.

Now here’s a question for all of you.

If you were to see a big lizard like that on the road while you’re driving down alone, what would you do?

Would you…

(A) Slow down and slowly try to drive past it.

(B) Turn back and take another route.

(C) Get down from the car to take some pictures.

(D) Floor the accelerator and try to run over it screaming “DIEEEEEEE MUTHAAFUCKAAAAAAA!!!!!”.
If you answered (A), well done on you for always keeping out of trouble.

If you answered (B), you’ve been watching too many horror movies. It’s just a big lizard and you’re in the safety of your car!

If you answered (C), you must be a blogger.

and if you answered (D), I bear no responsibility for what the environmentalists or care for wildlife people will do to you if they find out who you are. If I were you I would go hug a tree now just to make up for it.GO!!! GO AND HUG A TREE NOW!!!

HUG IT HARD!!!

Legend has it that one should not have durian and consume alcohol along with it.

Apparently the belief is that drinking alcohol with durian in your stomach will expand the durian in your stomach and eventually cause your stomach to explode.

Today, some of my friends put that to the test.

We had a DURIAN PARTY!!!
Any of you guys had a durian party before?

It’s where we’ll all buy lots and lots of durians and have durian for dinner at someone’s place. I know I know… a little bit of a weird idea at first but once you get used to it… it’s not that bad after all.
All you need is TRUCK LOADS OF DURIAN (well fine I exaggerated) and the tools of trade. A big CHOPPER

When I got to the party, a particular tray caught my attention.

It was a tray with wine glasses.
I thought to myself.. heck… maybe everyone really IS serious about drinking alcohol while eating durians.

And true enough, shortly after we started eating our durians, the beer was the first to come out.
Lots and lots of beer.

I didn’t have any though… not worth having my stomach blow up because of that. Besides I’ve always been more of a Heineken guy.

So I just focused on durians. I must’ve had like 15 pieces before I sat back on a plastic chair with my bulging stomach sticking out.
Turns out that half of the people there were like
“Uhh… no booze for me… I’m not taking the risk of having my stomach explode”.

Whereas the other half… just went….
“YAAAAAM SEEEEEEEEENGGG!!!!”

And soon the beer was done and red wine made its debut.

In just one hour we were done with countless number of durians and I was feeling so thirsty that I was drinking soo much water to quench my thirst.

That was about when one of my other friends came to me and said
“WOI!!! Don’t drink so much water after you eat durian, it makes the durian expand and makes you feel even more bloated!!!”

I looked at him for a minute and asked
“But I’m thirsty.. then how?”

He grabbed me a can of Tiger and said
“DRINK BEER!!! BETTER FOR YOU!!!! LAI LAI LAI CHEERS!!!!”

Ish..

By the end of the night, we must’ve finished 10-15 durians… and was stil left with countless more!It’s now been hours since the party now and so far I haven’t heard anyone who was drinking there get into any trouble so I guess… maybe that legend really is just a myth. Either ways, I wouldn’t take the risk.

Would you?

I’m back in our Penang office right now.

Just took a 4 hour drive from KL back to Penang yesterday to see if the team here is keeping well but most importantly to do some interviews.

Nuffnang is hiring again and I’m going to be spending much of the next few days in this Board Room at the Penang office.

Ahhh… this board room brings so many memories. It was the very same board room that all the early meetings at Nuffnang were held to address all our issues back then (don’t be carried away… our Nuffnang KL and Singapore office are hardly as nice as the Penang one).

These few days I’ll be using the boardroom to conduct some interviews for some new positions at Nuffnang Malaysia.

Among the positions we’re looking to hire are: an accountant, an ad operations guy and a PHP programmer.

If anyone asks me what is the hardest part of doing business, it’s not so much raising funds to do it... that’s really easy.. heck so many Venture Caps and companies have approached us wanting to invest millions in Nuffnang.

It’s also not quite selling.. although that’s pretty hard as well.

But to me.. it’s finding the right people.In the past year at Nuffnang I’ve found myself always looking to hire more and more people to keep up with the fast growth of the company. Being young, I have made my fair share of bad hires but I’ve always learned from my mistakes and very fortunately managed to hire very good people later on.

The crew at Nuffnang is really very much life family to me and I take pride that we are a young and fun bunch. The oldest at Nuffnang is 28 years old, and the average age is 24, similar to many other tech companies like Google or even Jobstreet when they first started off.

I take pride in that… that we’re a very young company run by young and very capable people. So much that it shocks our clients sometimes when they meet us in person to see that such young people were responsible for delivering such unquestionable results.

And because we’re young, our work culture is pretty unique and open.

Everyone works independently without having to have any supervisor breathe down his neck but everyone understands that if he doesn’t keep up with his work, he holds the entire team back from moving forward and we’re all working collectively for the same thing.

I love our team at Nuffnang and I think we have the most capable team I could ever ask for and I think they love me too. Right guys?

Now I’m going to have to go into an interview, to add to that family.