By now most of you who’re active on Twitter would already know that Steve Jobs just died at the age of 56.

You can read more about his life  here.

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.

A conversation between me and Shorty a few days ago.

Shorty: Do you realize that our 3 year anniversary is coming up?

Me: Uhh…. yeah…..

*3 seconds of silence passes*

Me: I don’t really know what to say or do. I’ve never been in a relationship for so long before.

Shorty: Yeah me too. *worries*

Hey Guys,

My favourite beer Heineken is once again holding Heineken Green Room next week at KL Live.

Here are the details.

Date : October 5th 2011

Time : 7PM till late

Venue: KL Live, 20 Jalan Sultan Ismail, 50250 KL

Acts : Gossip, Art Vs Science, Mini Compo, Twilight Actiongirl, Hypembeats & Jee Hoe

Ticket Price : Pre Sale – RM158, Door Sale – RM 188

There are two ways you can get tickets.

1) Buy them here – Tickets cost RM158 each or you can get them at the door at RM188.

2) Get them from me!!!

Yep… I decided to give Heineken a little shoutout on my blog but not in return for getting paid or anything. All I asked in return was… 5 pairs of tickets to Green Room to give YOU GUYS!!! My dear readers.

Now I only have 5 pairs to give away so I’m going to say this ok. The first 5 people to leave a comment here tomorrow (27th September 2011) at 10PM sharp onwards will get them ok?

Good luck guys! In the mean time you can check out their FB page here and play with their picture captioning tool 🙂

PS: Alternatively if you want to increase your chances in getting them, ChurpChurp’s also giving some away. Find out how to get them here.

One morning Ming decided to bring us all to Buckingham Palace. We were supposed to meet early in the morning but Shorty and I were early birds, making it some 45 minutes early.

I know… that doesn’t normally happen. Shorty doesn’t wake up any earlier than 12PM on holidays but we were all still jet lagged.

So since we were so early we decided to take a stroll in the park near Buckingham Palace. Or sit down on a park bench while having my morning sandwich.

Shorty though was busying herself taking pictures of things around her. Like these ducks.

Because I love roast duck, my friend once told me that we’re not allowed to harm or eat any of the ducks in England. They apparently all belong to the Queen and roasting them for dinner would land you in jail. Not sure how true that is but I’m glad I don’t have any desire to cook my own ducks. I just go to Four Seasons in Bayswater.

Ming arrived right on time and we headed to Buckingham Palace to meet him.

There were two major things to see there.

First was the Queen’s gallery which is apparently the Royal Family’s very own collection of art.

I never used to appreciate art. Never knew how to. Then I made it a point to get one of those audio guides whenever I went to a museum of any sort. So that I can learn about the story behind the art.

This one right here is about Cupid and his lover Psyche.

Didn’t find that particular story interesting and couldn’t help but notice how in those days, it’s attractive to be fat. Look how Psyche is chubbier than the typical model perfect girl you see in today’s world. Heck if I lived in those times, I would probably be regarded as extremely sexy… instead of fat.

My favourite piece was this one.

The artist was actually a woman and the man in the portrait was the French Finance Minister at the time. This portait was really difficult to paint because of its detail. First off how the artist managed to paint the black silky outfit the man was wearing because well a black outfit is really hard to paint and stand out. Other details include the powder on the man’s shoulder that actually comes from his wig.

On the table there were some papers about changes the finance minister was proposing the government to make. It was said that if those changes were really implemented, it would have prevented the French Revolution a few years later that resulted in King Louis XVI being executed.

Cool huh?

The other tourist attraction about Buckingham Palace apart from the grand interior itself is Kate Middleton’s dress that was displayed inside. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take any pictures in the palace or of the dress so I would just have to describe it for you ok. The dress… looks white and long and looks like this.

Heh.

Shorty and I managed to only take a picture outside Buckingham Palace right here.

So that was Buckingham Palace for Shorty and I.

On Day 2 of London, Shorty and I did the tourist thing in London. The truth about London is that there’s always so much to do. So much history to catch up on, so many musicals to watch, so much food to explore and let’s not get started on the SHOPPING. There is no city in the world that can rob you of your shopping money faster than London can. It’s true.

Before we went to London, Shorty was saying how she wanted to make sure she didn’t plan to shop. She said everything in London is expensive and not really her style and all that. But fast forward a week in London and Shorty and I had to go buy another luggage bag to carry home just to fit all our shopping in it. Maybe I’ll dedicate another post to our shopping in future.

In the mean time, here is some of the things we did on Day 2.

We went to the most iconic London building. Well actually London has so many iconic buildings its hard to say which one really is THE ONE, but Big Ben has definitely got to be in the list.

There was construction work going on all around Big Ben and all around London that week for that matter. I had to try take photos at certain angles to avoid all the ugly fences around the construction work. I kept reminding Shorty that London normally doesn’t look like this. Just that they’re getting ready for the Olympics in 2012.

Right next to Big Ben is the Houses of Parliament.

As a student I remember watching all televised debates that they had here and admired how well all the British politicians spoke and how intelligent they all were.

After Big Ben, Shorty and I went to see Westminster Abbey…. where everyone today knows as the place Kate Middleton and Prince William got married.

After that we took a walk across a bridge to walk along the river Thames. Bumped into a big Subway Sandwich.

I love Subway!

I never used to actually… but in recent years when I’ve gotten more and more health conscious I’ve been having more Subway and less of other fast food. I think many Malaysians are also going through the same phase. Before there were only a few Subway branches in KL. Today there are countless and they’re always full of people buying sandwiches from them.

If you really think about it, you’ll be surprised to notice how difficult it is to eat healthy in Malaysia. Just about everything we have is deep fried or fatty or…. well you get the drift. I think sandwiches will generally get more and more popular in Malaysia… until at least we come up with some really healthy yet truly Malaysian food that is cheap (relatively at least).

Anyway we continued on to walk along the River Thames.

The river Thames is this river that cuts more or less in the middle of London. People generally tend to think the water there is dirty and I remember years ago when I was a student, I used to drink a lot of Dasani bottled water which was produced by the Coca-Cola Company. There was a huge controversy then with lots of people saying that we were just buying and drinking bottled water from the Thames. That was pretty bad considering most mineral water we drink in the UK come from some alpine glacier or natural spring.

To think that was 7 years ago…. shit I’m getting old!

Moving on, we passed this little skateboarder corner that was decorated with street graffiti.

Some place I never knew existed in my 3 years studying in London but somehow Ming knew all about it.

It was another 10 minute walk down the side of the river until we reached our destination. A restaurant right by the side of the river,

that served Scorpion Vodka. That’s Vodka with actually scorpion in it.

I don’t know if the scorpion is supposed to make you drunk quicker or to scare you but whichever it is, I’m sure it does the job really well.

We took some pictures at the balcony of the restaurant.

Had lunch, then continued our walk to the Millenium Bridge.

Ming calls it “The Harry Potter” bridge because it was the bridge that was destroyed in one of the movies.

We walked all the way to St Paul Cathedral only to realize that it was closed for the day.
So Shorty and I went instead to Trafalgar Square.

And then off to Ed’s, this American style diner in London that serves the BEST PEANUT BUTTER BANANA MILKSHAKE! OOooh how I love thee!

Our last stop for the day before dinner was M&M World. Yes… there is such a thing. It’s a huge 4-storey shop that sells everything M&Ms. From the chocolates to t-shirts to pillows and fun little photo props like this.

That I’m guessing is supposed to be M&Ms’ spoof of Abbey Lane. You know the famous Beetles cover?

Alright time for me to go to bed now! Hopefully my jetlag shall allow me to sleep this time round.

Yesterday I had one of the most INSANE experiences I have ever had in my life. EVER!

See the whole reason I came to the UK this time round was because Pierre invited Ming and I to launching of Mamee Double-Partnership with Manchester United. If you don’t know what Mamee Double-Decker is already… it’s the snacks company that’s behind everything from Mamee Monster, Double Decker, Mamee noodles to even Mister Potato. Started as a family business years ago in Malacca they now export to over80 countries in the world.

So to see what this new partnership between them and Manchester United is about, pick up a Mister Potato canister today and you’ll see it all themed Manchester United.

It was a huge step for Mamee to work with the World’s Biggest football club and I know that it took a lot of work from behind the scenes… but now that it’s all come true. I’m really proud for Pierre and Mamee Double Decker.

The launching of this partnership took place in Old Trafford. Where Manchester United hosted Mamee Double-Decker and a selected few of its guests and media for a stadium tour and then dinner at Old Trafford itself.

Ming and I were one of the lucky ones that were invited as Pierre’s guests even though we didn’t have a “Datuk” behind our name or the CEO of some major newspaper or media in Malaysia.

Pierre had some last minute spots too so he was nice enough to give one to Shorty (since she was already with me in the UK) … and another to one of our ChurpChurp influencers Hafiz Hamidun who found out about it just a few days before and bought his own air ticket over the next day.
The first part of the event was a press conference with representatives of both Mamee and Manchester United… and a special guest… someone they all call “The Boss” – Sir Alex Ferguson.

When Sir Alex walked in, the atmosphere in the room changed. Everyone was in awe… especially Ming.

Towards the end of the press conference, there was a Q&A session. Ming was shy to ask Sir Alex any questions at first but I eventually managed to get him the mike. Unluckily though, right after I passed the mic to Ming the Q&A session ended. Ming said when he got the mic he was feeling the most nervous he had ever felt in his life.

At the end of the press conference though, 6 players from the team walked. in for photo opportunities. We could all go around and take pictures with them.

Recognize any of them?

I managed to take pictures with a few… namely.

MICHAEL OWEN!!! BEEN A HUGE FAN OF HIS SINCE HE FIRST PLAYED FOR ENGLAND!!!

Park Ji-Sung the most famous Asian player in the premier league right now.

Bryan Robson who I met last year for Ming’s birthday.

Gary Neville… my sister LOVES him. Always thought he was cute.

and Manchester United legend Quinton Fortune

Also got a picture with Vuitton and May 🙂

And a picture of the VIPs there that day along with Mister Potato.

After the press conference we had a private tour of Old Trafford.

The stadium can house some 70,000 fans and is sold out at every single game!

They even took us to the tunnel where all the players normally come out from.

So this is what they see when they first walk out.

The pitch was beautiful. The tour guide explained that right underneath it was piping that would pump out hot water on the pitch during winter to prevent it from frosting over. So no matter the weather, the game goes on!

The tour guide pointed to one section of the stadium and said “See those seats there? That’s where 3,000 Chelsea fans are going to see them get beat tomorrow”. Then everyone cheered.

Haha!

After the tour we were brought to the Old Trafford Megastore. You can find everything and anything Manchester United there. Look at all the jerseys they had.

By the time I had reached the store, I had already learned so much about the history of Manchester United and Old Trafford that I was a Manchester United fan already!

So I ended up buying 3 jerseys.

After our little shopping trip the club hosted us for a nice dinner at Old Trafford. There some of the legends joined us.
I managed to take a picture of Dennis Irwin.

And of the league cup with Pierre and Ming (and Mister Potato).

Alright guys I gotta run now. Going to get ready for the Manchester United vs Chelsea match today at Old Trafford. Will blog more soon! See ya!

Today something went wrong with the on/off button of my iPhone 4. It was a typical problem of many other devices. You press a button often enough, eventually wear and tear will have it sink in and not bounce up when you expect it to. The great thing about Apple products though is its International Warranty. I can take it to any Apple Store in the world and they’ll fix it for me. Since I’m in London now I decided to take it to the Apple Store in Covent Garden (Yes that’s my finger at the bottom of the camera lens when I took this picture… me being an idiot).

The service was good. I made an appointment and I only had to wait some 10 minutes or so before a staff member came to help me. I told him my problem and he took my phone to the back to take a look at it. He came back 5 minutes later and the first thing he asked me to do was look down the bottom of my iPhone where you normally plug the charger in.

Then he asked
“Do you see that pink dot at the bottom of the phone?”

I struggled to see it for a while but after some moments I said yeah.

“That is a sensor that indicates enough liquid has gone into the phone  to affect the electrical components of the phone. So your warranty is void.”.

I had never dropped by phone into water or anything so I had no idea how that might have happened. But in any case, nothing else in my phone was wonky or not working. Everything was working fine… there were no electronic problems. The only problem if anything was mechanical… and that was that my on/off button wasn’t working so well. It just didn’t spring up anymore when I pressed it.

So I went on to ask

“Are you saying that some liquid had gone into the bottom of my phone and for that reason my on/off button has stopped working?”

He said “No I’m just saying because of this, warranty is void so if you want to replace your button you’ll have to pay GBP173 (which is something like RM865)”

I asked further

“Everything in the phone is working fine electronically. Just that one button. Are you saying that water going into the bottom caused my button to not bounce up when I press it?” (While everything else in my phone including charging it through the same socket the water was supposed to have gone in by is still working fine).

And he said
“Probably not… but we’ll never know for sure if this damage was caused by the liquid or not. So we have to void the warranty”.

I said okay and that I wasn’t going to replace my button for GBP 173. He looked really surprised that I wasn’t going to do it. Like any other idiot he told this story to would have done it.

Somehow when I walked out of the store I wasn’t feeling angry or anything. Maybe it’s because I knew I was going to change my phone soon anyway.. or that Eric Soong would have been able to fix it for me back home for a fraction of the price. As I went home though I thought about it.

The first thing the Apple staff did after taking 5 minutes to examine my phone in the back, wasn’t to tell me why my button wasn’t working. In fact he never did tell me why the button wasn’t working. He spent the entire time telling me why my warranty is void and why if I want him or Apple to fix my phone, I had to pay for it and it wasn’t under warranty. I don’t even know if my warranty is already expired in the first place but I assumed he checked anyway… which is why he came back to give me some other reason it was void.

So sure… legally I’m sure Apple is covered. I’m sure they can prove that “enough liquid” might have gone into the phone to affect the “electrical components” and hence warranty is void. But if that really happened… why is my phone still working like a charm except for the button on top? It’s not like I dropped it into a pool. The only reason I can think of how any liquid might have gone in is from the sweat of being in my pocket or even maybe on one of those days I get caught in the rain. Still… everything is working… just not the spring on the button. In any case, why is Apple’s first approach to jump on you to prevent you from getting your warranty when they could instead be focusing on fixing the problem itself.

So did Apple just cheat me out of my warranty? Or were they just trying to get me to pay a fortune for something that cost a fraction to do.

I have been using Apple products since 5 years ago. Today I have an iMac, Macbook Air, iPad 2 and iPhone 4. I was planning to switch either to the iPhone 5 when it comes out or an Android (since I’m hearing lots of good things about it). This incident though …. just made the case for the latter a lot stronger.

I don’t feel like Apple appreciates me as an individual consumer. On the contrary I feel as if they want to squeeze every single penny they can out of me. Perhaps its time for me to spread my eggs in different baskets.

Every year Shorty and I make it a point to have one long trip together. Last year was New York and this year was supposed to be London. I say supposed though because we nearly canceled it. Predicting that there was going to be a recession next year given all the global economic problems, we wanted to save money and not go this year.

Then one day Pierre came to me and told me that his family company Mamee Double Decker (the company behind brands like Mister Potato, Nutrigen, Mamee Monster, Mamee noodles etc etc) is sponsoring Manchester United. So he asked me and Ming along with him to the UK for the signing ceremony where we can meet Sir Alex Ferguson and some other Man Utd players.

Now I’m not a huge football fan but still,  this was a lifetime opportunity that I just couldn’t give up. So I decided to go in the end.

After a long 13 hour flight, Shorty and I found ourselves in London!

Yesterday was our first full day in London.We started off the morning paying a visit to Old Spitafield Market.

It’s like one of the many markets in London where they sell everything from vintage clothes to accessories to even antique typewriters like this one that Ming bought which was made in 1932. Can you believe that? Made before World War 2 and YET in full working condition!

Don’t ask me why Ming bought it… Ming just likes buying things like that.

Somewhere just off the market we found this little shop that sold Lomo cameras too.

Again… Ming couldn’t help himself but buy a few while the rest of us stood outside to take a picture.

Yes if you notice from the picture, Nuffies Elaine, Melissa and Rachel decided to come along on our break to the UK.

Shorty wasn’t all innocent when it came to shopping though. Before we came for our trip she kept telling me that she probably won’t buy much from London. That everything is expensive and not her kind of things anyway. When she came though, the shopping monster was unleashed. Within 10 minutes of entering the market she bought a scarf that cost some GBP 7.00.

Then in an hour she bought this new leather jacket that cost RM150.

She thought about it for a long time… feeling guilty about spending so much money but we decided that RM150 is what a nice shirt at Zara or Topman would cost. So it’s a steal for a leather jacket. Plus I love that the leather jacket comes with a hoodie. Not many of those these days.

My favourite part of the market or any market like that in London is… the food section.

Old Spitafield Market has this Asian skewed food section where they sold curry rice, sushi and stuff like that.

I went for some meatball with curry couscous because I absolutely love couscous.

We tarpaued some food from these stalls.

Then sat outside the market to eat in the beautiful weather.

After we were done with lunch and the market we headed to Harrods in Knightsbridge.

Harrods is the most luxurious departmental store in all of England. Everything there down to the mineral water that they sell there is expensive or at least more expensive to what you can get it outside. The rich still shop there though because if you’re up to spending lots of money there they’ll assign you a personal shopper and give you every kind of great customer service you want. There’s even a bank inside there to draw more money if you ever need it. Yes I mean bank… not ATM… but actual bank branch.. and not any regular bank but a Harrods Bank!

Inside Harrods I took Shorty to the memorial for Princess Diana and her boyfriend who died with her in the car accident years ago Dodi Al-Fayed.

Dodi’s Dad used to own Harrods until recently when they sold it to another Middle-Eastern family.

After Harrods we took a walk down Knightsbridge. Shorty then spotted the famous London phone booth and insisted we take a picture.

Now here’s one thing you may or may not know about London phone booths. On the outside they look all really nice and cute. On the inside though, it’s full of these.

Calling cards for prostitutes all over London. They stick out so much that even Shorty had a hard time concentrating on her call when she was in the phone booth.

Before the day ended, Shorty found yet another London icon that she liked. While we were walking down Regent Street late last night

she came across….The Royal Mail postbox… which looks like the Royal GIANT Mail Box compared to her.

I remember mailing my letters in this little postbox during my student days in London.

So that’s my first day at London. Today we start our second day. Gotta run guys! 🙂