I was in Jakarta not long ago for some work. It was my first time in Indonesia really. I’ve never even been to Bali. It was a really short trip though and I was so busy that only when I got back did I realize that I didn’t even take a picture of the city!
Anyway my first impression of Jakarta is great! I actually quite like it there. The city is massive but it feels to me a bit like KL maybe because you can get around fine just by speaking Bahasa Malaysia. I also find the people there really friendly!
One thing about Jakarta though was that I hardly saw an iPhone there. Quite the opposite of Singapore where everyone there has an iPhone… in Jakarta, EVERYBODY uses Blackberry. Why? Just because of BBM (Blackberry Messenger).
My friends there tell me that people don’t even ask for phone numbers anymore. Their main mode of communication is BBM. One friend told me that he talks to some of his friends regularly on BBM and doesn’t even have their phone numbers. So a BBM is a must… you can have your second phone as an iPhone or Android… but nobody does without a Blackberry there in Indonesia.
As for me, I just bought myself one of these. Partly because I couldn’t stand the problems my Torch was giving me anymore.
The Blackberry 9900 however… is the best Blackberry ever made! It’s fast, doesn’t lag or hang and it’s a joy to use. The other Blackberries I had were kinda like phones that I needed for work… but this one is one that I LOVE!
If you’re a Blackberry user, this phone is enough to keep you on BB and not switch to Android or iPhone. However, if you’re an iPhone and Android user now I’m not sure if this is good enough to make you switch back to Blackberry. Overall though I love my new Blackberry 9900. If RIM had come up with the 9900 last year instead of this year, lots of people who switched would probably still be using Blackberries 🙂
Ok so here’s the story. For the longest time I was looking for a small bag to carry my laptop or my tablet in wherever I go. After looking around for some time I eventually found one that I liked from Crumpler.
It was simple, small and light…. all for just above RM100.
Of course I know I don’t exactly have the best fashion sense in the world so I did what a lot of guys did. I brought Mimi along with me to help me choose the bag… since Shorty was busy. And Mimi agreed that it was a nice bag.
That was the last time I ever heard anyone say it was a nice bag. Ever since then, everyone I meet tells me that it’s a horrible cheap looking bag. Shorty at one point even thought that it was one of those “free gift” bags that I got for buying whiskey or milk powder or something.
In fact my friends hated my bag so much that Ming ended up buying me a new bag. The new bag is a lot more heavier and bigger and it looks like this.
This one… Shorty approves.
So I don’t know…. are my friends right?
Among these two bags… which do you think is nicer?
iOS5 came out at 1AM last night so the first thing I did this morning was to upgrade my OS. The whole process took a lot longer than I thought it would and caused a few problems at first but after all that was over with… taadaaa I had the new OS. If you want to learn more about what it does, watch this video.
Now Apple says there are 200 new features with the new iOS 5. Well technically that’s true but there are only some new 5-7 features or so that I think will make a real difference. One of them is that whenever you get an SMS or a WhatsAPP message or anything, the annoying pop-up that interrupts whatever you’re doing is taken away. Instead it’s just put in a notifications tab just like how the Android or Blackberry does it. If you have a BB just like me too, you probably wouldn’t feel the huge difference there because you’ve been having a notifications tab on the BB for years now. But if you’re a pure iPhone user then yes… it’s a huugeee difference.
Many of the features that the iOS5 is something that the Android and/or Blackberry already has had for a while but it’s still great to finally have them on the iPhone. There are some other stuff the Android has that I wish the new iOS has like having the Twitter/Facebook feed on the home page or dashboard but I guess some people like the iPhone interface the way it is.
Go plug in your iPhone 3Gs/4 to iTunes today to update it. It’s a definitely an improvement you wanna have!
When I was in Bangkok some months back, some of my Thai friends brought me clubbing. One of the places we checked out was a popular club there called Funky Villa. The club’s really different from the Zouks and MOSs that I’m used to. Instead of playing dance music all night long, they had a live ban that would play for an hour at a time. After a live performance is done they would take a break and then dance music would come on.
At first I found it odd… but after a while it grew on me. It’s like if you’re ever feeling bored of the dance music, a great performance comes on stage and everyone jumps to the music by the band. I always wondered why we never had a concept like that in KL…. until now that is.
My friend Vuitton recently got together with some partners to start a club in KL just like that. It’s called Neverland and last night I went there with some of the Nuffies.
It was their official opening and the club was supported by Carlsberg, Pepsi, Martell and Chivas: All the liquids you need to get you in the dancing mood.
They got some top bloggers to go and even Hannah Tan showed up to host.
Here’s a picture I took of one of the performances.
Friggin cool right??!
The best part about it is that it wasn’t just one single band. A few bands took turns to sing really different kind of songs.
At one point, one of the bands even sang Beyond’s Hai Guo which drove me nuts. I ended up singing along at the front of the stage, though admittedly by then I was already high.
My friends got me to drink and I made a mistake I constantly seem to make over and over again. I mixed my drinks. I started with vodka, then to whiskey, beer and even champagne towards the end. By the middle of the night I had a cocktail of a variety of booze in my blood and was high. Fortunately I’m the happy kind of high.
I’ve seen all sorts of “high’s”. Some people are “happy highs” like me, some “crying highs” and some even “angry highs”. That’s right, some of my friends will cry when they’re high and tell me how much they miss their boyfriends and others would get angry and start cursing at me and picking a fight with a random stranger.
High as I was, I still managed to get some pictures though. Here’s Ringo, Chuckei and “high” me.
Me with some of the Nuffies. Luke, Firdy and Min!
Here’s me with Mimi, Karen and Raessa.
And me with even more Nuffies.
Some of us… higher than others of course.
Neverland is my new favourite club in KL! It’s refreshing to finally have something new in our clubbing scene.
I’ll be going there more often now. Anyone going this weekend?
Today on the 10th of October 2011, Shorty and I celebrate our 3rd year of being together. Well ok to be honest, the both of us couldn’t tell when it was that we officially became a couple. Because the way our relationship started wasn’t with a “Would you be my girlfriend?” question. We never asked any questions or officiated anything. We just silently knew we were a couple and started to act like one. So there isn’t like a specific date.
We knew however that the date was somewhere around the 10th of October but weren’t 100% sure… so well we decided to just call 10th of October our anniversary date. Since it’s a nice number…. yes… very Asian of us. But actually it’s not because of the number but because we found the date 10/10 to be really funny. You guys know the “ten ten ten” joke right?
So anyway, we’ve been together for 3 years now. This is a new milestone for me… because I’ve never had a relationship that ever crossed the 2 year mark. I know… I’m not proud of that.
Apparently it’s a milestone for Shorty too. Both of us suffer from a short attention span when it comes to relationships and never lasted in a long relationship… until now.
So to celebrate our longest relationship evahhh… Â Shorty and I went to Garibaldi for dinner.
It’s been 3 years… but it still feels like we’ve been together only for 3 months.
I was out for lunch at a mall with the Singapore Nuffies last year in Singapore. Right after lunch a group of them insisted to go buy Pearl Milk Tea. It wasn’t just something they felt like doing all of a sudden but it was apparently a regular thing for them… have lunch, then have a pearl milk tea. I couldn’t figure out this sudden craze for pearl milk tea. I mean it’s been around for more than 10 years as far as I remember and why the sudden craze now?
Well this year, that craze hit Malaysia. It started with Chatime. The story goes that this guy’s father asked him what he wanted to do. So he said “Give me a million bucks and I’ll grow it for you”.
The father did… and so he went for a holiday in Taiwan and visited this franchise exhibition. That was the first time he heard about Cha Time and he decided to bring the franchise to Malaysia. He came back and started 2 shops and within a month the franchise in Malaysia has grown to over 25 shops. Some of the shops are owned by him and some, by other franchisees.
My friend Richie is one of the other franchisees that just started his first store in Publika Solaris. So I decided to pay a visit to his store yesterday.
I had trouble finding Publika at first.. heck I had no idea what it was but when I finally got there I was shocked. Publika is this huge and really nice mall that exists 5 mins away from Solaris Mont Kiara.
If you’re wondering why you haven’t heard of it, it’s probably because eventhough it started a year ago, it hasn’t really picked up yet until recently.
So to support my dear friend Richie I decided to buy 33 cups of Cha Time Pearl Milk Tea for the Nuffies. It took them some 20 minutes or so to make that many cups.
And when I finally brought it back to the office. Madness ensued!
It’s like I was bringing food aid to a poverty-stricken country. All the Nuffies went crazy and rushed around to get themselves a cup.
That’s the kind of effect Cha Time still has on people. So if you’re a Chatime addict… go support Richie at his store in Publika ok? It’s worth visiting the mall too. Not all the shops have opened yet but in due time I’m sure it’ll be an awesome mall!
There are also lots of quotes from him floating around the internet now. My favourite is this one.
”Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”
Pre-note: I got inspired to write this entry after a conversation I had with a friend today.
When I was a kid, I remember this book being passed around the house.
I never read it until many years later when I was 17 but even now I can’t remember what the book was all about… apart from the obvious. Whenever I think of how to be happy in life though, the image and the memory of this book keeps coming to mind.
If you think about it, “Being Happy” is what everyone on Earth lives life for. We want to be happy and we pursue what we think will make us happy. Whether it’s love, money, career, respect or even legacy. I’ve always asked myself what makes ME happy and it’s a combination of things. Sure a part of it is money. Money is after all a facilitator to acquire experiences in life. Whether it’s to eat in a new restaurant, to go sky diving, traveling, living in a beautiful home or even driving a car that you love. All these are experiences and money helps you get them. But that’s not all of it.
Being loved and having someone to love is a bigger part of it (family & gf). Life is full of experiences, ups and downs and it’s the kind of thing you’d always want to have someone to sail through it with. Another part of it is doing what I love… and for that I’m lucky because I love my job.
The worst thing that can happen to anyone though is having all the things he needs to be happy and yet be unhappy. In my short 27 years of life so far, I’ve realized that it happens… when we compare ourselves with others.
It’s something we all grew up with. In school, whatever work we have done is put into a grade. Everyone is awarded a score of 0-100 in all the exams they do that so-called determines how smart you are compared to your friends. Then teachers and parents compare away. They even go as far as to put in your position in class or form. Perhaps that’s why today we’re conditioned to think that a number can determine how successful someone is in life. In school it was marks, in real life… maybe it’s money.
My father always told me that a successful man or woman is not one who makes the most money. But one who lives a good life, has a good family, good friends, good health and peace of mind. Many years ago I visited the house of one such successful man. Let me name him Jeff. Jeff was rich… at least by my standards. He lived in a beautiful bungalow house, 4 luxury cars and most importantly… he had a wonderful family. The lovely kids he had in his home and the wonderful bond they had made their house a home. It was a life I wished someday I would have. But Jeff wasn’t happy. He wasn’t happy because he never stopped comparing his wealth to the wealth of his wealthier friends.
This could happen to any of us if we let it. Imagine your dream is to one day own a BMW M3 or if you’re a girl, maybe to be able to open a Chanel bag one day. You work hard and when you finally get it you feel really happy. Then you look around you and your wealthier friends start buying Porsches or carrying Hermes Berkins. Before you know it, you don’t feel as proud or happy as you thought you would be… not because you don’t love what you have… but because the people around you have something you think is better.
If we spend all our time looking at the people around us, we lose precious time we could’ve used instead to stop and appreciate the wonderful things we have in our own lives. There’s a saying that goes “The richest man is not the one who has most, but the one who needs least”.
I have a lot of things to be grateful for in my life and most of us do. Even if you have the simple luxury of being able to eat out any time with good friends you can call out then you have a good life to be grateful for.
There’s another plus side to not comparing ourselves with others. The day we can stop comparing ourselves to our friends is the day we can start to feel happy for them too. That’s a whole new level of happiness. Last weekend my best friend whom I’ve known and kept in touch with for 24 years got married to a beautiful girl.
It was the sweetest and the most fun wedding I had ever been a part of.
Part of the fun was because it was in Penang so I met lots of my old Penang friends there like Ivy and Cynthia here.
Perhaps even part of it was because I was one of his Best Men and as much as I hate to admit it, I had fun when the Best Men and Bridesmaids did our very own version of “Chris Brown- Forever”‘ dance down the aisle.
Inspired by this viral video.
But mostly because of the moment I saw my friend and his wonderful bride walking down the aisle. I felt sincere happiness for my friend that he had found a someone awesome to live life with. And in feeling that happiness for my friend, I was happy.
During last year’s World Cup, I had a little wager with Alex. It was the semi-finals, Germany vs Spain. I was feeling all confident for Germany since they were playing so well in the previous few games. So I chose Germany and Alex chose Spain.
At stakes was dinner. Not just dinner anywhere. But the deal was that if I won, Alex would fly over to KL and buy me dinner at an expensive KL restaurant. If I lost however, I would have to fly to London and buy him dinner. We know how that went. Spain won 1-0. So when I was in London a few weeks ago with Shorty I brought Alex for lunch at Maze.
Maze is a 1 Michellin Star restaurant by Gordon Ramsay. It’s also the only Gordon Ramsay restaurant I have tried or been able to afford. The main Gordon Ramsay restaurant in Londonis 3 Michellin Stars but can end up costing RM1,000 per head for a dinner. That’s just wayy too much for me. Maze is much more affordable.
Alex walked into the restaurant all well-dressed and all. Saying he was in between meetings. He shook hands with Shorty for the first time and sat down.
It was his first time meeting Shorty after hearing so much about her. At first it started awkward for them but after a while I knew they had broken the ice when they both started making fun of me together.
While Alex and I were talking though Shorty made it a point to take a picture of everything we ate. It looks so unlike normal food that even I have trouble remembering what we ordered. So I’m just going to describe it like this.
This is some duck thing.
I think this one is pork.
This one i have no idea.
And this one… ahh I remember.. some beef cheeks.
Finally for dessert I had this.
Which was really nice too.
I know what you’re thinking. If Gordon Ramsay ever read me talk about his restaurant’s food like that he’d tell me to “never fucking come back” to any of his restaurants again. Rumour has it that once someone was at his restaurant and asked for ketchup. When Gordon Ramsay heard about that request, he stormed out of the kitchen and shouted
“WHO THE FUCK ASKED FOR KETCHUP!?!?”
The patron stood up innocently and said “Me!”.
Gordon Ramsay then went up to him and said
“GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY RESTAURANT!”.
Of course this is a story that goes around and I’ve never really gotten to verify it. But watch Gordon Ramsay on TV enough and you can imagine him doing something like that.
Over lunch I had something that made me feel like adding some soya sauce into it. But I fortunately remembered this story and kept my mouth shut.
Alright but seriously if you really want to know what I had, it’s some of the things in this menu.
The food at Maze again. Ming always says that lots of Michellin Star restaurants aren’t worth their salt but Maze is one of the few that actually are. So if you’re going to London to eat any of the really great restaurants there, try out Maze.
There’s nothing like having good food with good friends… and a Shorty.
The Blackberry 9900 however… is the best Blackberry ever made! It’s fast, doesn’t lag or hang and it’s a joy to use. The other Blackberries I had were kinda like phones that I needed for work… but this one is one that I LOVE!
You can read more about his life  
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space