As most of you should know, not too long ago… Mrs Lee Kuan Yew’s wife passed away. I happened to see this link being shared on Twitter on his final farewell to his wife. I thought they had a marriage made in Heaven. I hope we will all have good marriages like that too.

———

Source: Malaysian Insider.

Oct 6 — Ancient peoples developed and ritualised mourning practices to express the shared grief of family and friends, and together show not fear or distaste for death, but respect for the dead one; and to give comfort to the living who will miss the deceased.

I recall the ritual mourning when my maternal grandmother died some 75 years ago. For five nights the family would gather to sing her praises and wail and mourn at her departure, led by a practiced professional mourner.

Such rituals are no longer observed. My family’s sorrow is to be expressed in personal tributes to the matriarch of our family.

In October 2003 when she had her first stroke, we had a strong intimation of our mortality.

My wife and I have been together since 1947 for more than three quarters of our lives. My grief at her passing cannot be expressed in words. But today, when recounting our lives together, I would like to celebrate her life.

In our quiet moments, we would revisit our lives and times together. We had been most fortunate. At critical turning points in our lives, fortune favoured us.

As a young man with an interrupted education at Raffles College, and no steady job or profession, her parents did not look upon me as a desirable son-in-law. But she had faith in me.

We had committed ourselves to each other. I decided to leave for England in September 1946 to read law, leaving her to return to Raffles College to try to win one of the two Queen’s Scholarships awarded yearly. We knew that only one Singaporean would be awarded. I had the resources, and sailed for England, and hoped that she would join me after winning the Queen’s Scholarship.

If she did not win it, she would have to wait for me for three years.

In June the next year, 1947, she did win it. But the British colonial office could not get her a place in Cambridge.

Through Chief Clerk of Fitzwilliam, I discovered that my Censor at Fitzwilliam, W S Thatcher, was a good friend of the Mistress of Girton, Miss Butler.

He gave me a letter of introduction to the Mistress. She received me and I assured her that Choo would most likely take a “First”, because she was the better student when we both were at Raffles College.

I had come up late by one

term to Cambridge, yet passed my first year qualifying examination with a class 1. She studied Choo’s academic record and decided to admit her in October that same year, 1947.

We have kept each other company ever since. We married privately in December 1947 at Stratford-upon-Avon. At Cambridge, we both put in our best efforts. She took a first in two years in Law Tripos II. I took a double first, and a starred first for the finals, but in three years.

We did not disappoint our tutors. Our Cambridge Firsts gave us a good start in life. Returning to Singapore, we both were taken on as legal assistants in Laycock & Ong, a

thriving law firm in Malacca Street. Then we married officially a second time that September 1950 to please our parents and friends. She practised conveyancing and draftsmanship, I did litigation.

In February 1952, our first son Hsien Loong was born. She took maternity leave for a year.

That February, I was asked by John Laycock, the Senior Partner, to take up the case of the Postal and Telecommunications Uniformed Staff Union, the postmen’s union.

They were negotiating with the government for better terms and conditions of service. Negotiations were deadlocked and they decided to go on strike. It was a battle for public support. I was able to put across the reasonableness of their case through the press and radio. After a fortnight, they won concessions from the government. Choo, who was at home on maternity leave, pencilled through my draft statements, making them simple and clear.

Over the years, she influenced my writing style. Now I write in short sentences, in the active voice. We gradually influenced each other’s ways and habits as we adjusted and accommodated each other.

We knew that we could not stay starry-eyed lovers all our lives; that life was an on-going challenge with new problems to resolve and manage.

We had two more children, Wei Ling in 1955 and Hsien Yang in 1957. She brought them up to be well-behaved, polite, considerate and never to throw their weight as the prime minister’s children.

As a lawyer, she earned enough, to free me from worries about the future of our children.

She saw the price I paid for not having mastered Mandarin when I was young. We decided to send all three children to Chinese kindergarten and schools.

She made sure they learned English and Malay well at home. Her nurturing has equipped them for life in a multi-lingual region.

We never argued over the upbringing of our children, nor over financial matters. Our earnings and assets were jointly held. We were each other’s confidant.

She had simple pleasures. We would walk around the Istana gardens in the evening, and I hit golf balls to relax.

Later, when we had grandchildren, she would take them to feed the fish and the swans in the Istana ponds. Then we would swim. She was interested in her surroundings, for instance, that many bird varieties were pushed out by mynahs and crows eating

up the insects and vegetation.

She discovered the curator of the gardens had cleared wild grasses and swing fogged for mosquitoes, killing off insects they fed on. She stopped this and the bird varieties returned. She surrounded the swimming pool with free flowering scented flowers and derived great pleasure smelling them as she swam.

She knew each flower by its popular and botanical names. She had an enormous capacity for words.

She had majored in English literature at Raffles College and was a voracious reader, from Jane Austen to JRR Tolkien, from Thucydides’ The Peloponnesian Wars to Virgil’s Aeneid, to The Oxford Companion to Food, and Seafood of Southeast Asia, to Roadside Trees of Malaya, and Birds of Singapore.

She helped me draft the Constitution of the PAP. For the inaugural meeting at Victoria Memorial Hall on 4 November 1954, she gathered the wives of the founder members to sew rosettes for those who were going on stage.

In my first election for Tanjong Pagar, our home in Oxley Road, became the HQ to assign cars provided by my supporters to ferry voters to the polling booth.

She warned me that I could not trust my new found associates, the leftwing trade unionists led by Lim Chin Siong. She was furious that he never sent their high school student helpers to canvass for me in Tanjong Pagar, yet demanded the use of cars provided by my supporters to ferry my Tanjong Pagar voters.

She had an uncanny ability to read the character of a person. She would sometimes warn me to be careful of certain persons; often, she turned out to be right.

When we were about to join Malaysia, she told me that we would not succeed because the UMNO Malay leaders had such different lifestyles and because their politics were communally-based, on race and religion.

I replied that we had to make it work as there was no better choice. But she was right.

We were asked to leave Malaysia before two years.

When separation was imminent, Eddie Barker, as Law Minister, drew up the draft legislation for the separation. But he did not include an undertaking by the Federation Government to guarantee the observance of the two water agreements between the PUB and the Johor state government. I asked Choo to include this. She drafted the undertaking as part of the constitutional amendment of the Federation of Malaysia Constitution itself.

She was precise and meticulous in her choice of words. The amendment statute was annexed to the Separation Agreement, which we then registered with the United Nations.

The then Commonwealth Secretary Arthur Bottomley said that if other federations were to separate, he hoped they would do it as professionally as Singapore and Malaysia.

It was a compliment to Eddie’s and Choo’s professional skills. Each time Malaysian Malay leaders threatened to cut off our water supply, I was reassured that this clear and solemn international undertaking by the Malaysian government in its Constitution will get us a ruling by the UNSC (United Nations Security Council).

After her first stroke, she lost her left field of vision. This slowed down her reading. She learned to cope, reading with the help of a ruler. She swam every evening and kept fit. She continued to travel with me, and stayed active despite the stroke. She stayed in touch with her family and old friends.

She listened to her collection of CDs, mostly classical, plus some golden oldies. She jocularly divided her life into “before stroke” and “after stroke”, like BC and AD.

She was friendly and considerate to all associated with her. She would banter with her WSOs (woman security officers) and correct their English grammar and pronunciation in a friendly and cheerful way. Her former WSOs visited her when she was at NNI. I thank them all.

Her second stroke on 12 May 2008 was more disabling. I encouraged and cheered her on, helped by a magnificent team of doctors, surgeons, therapists and nurses.

Her nurses, WSOs and maids all grew fond of her because she was warm and considerate. When she coughed, she would take her small pillow to cover her mouth because she worried for them and did not want to infect them.

Her mind remained clear but her voice became weaker. When I kissed her on her cheek, she told me not to come too close to her in case I caught her pneumonia.

I assured her that the doctors did not think that was likely because I was active.

When given some peaches in hospital, she asked the maid to take one home for my lunch. I was at the centre of her life.

On 24 June 2008, a CT scan revealed another bleed again on the right side of her brain. There was not much more that medicine or surgery could do except to keep her comfortable.

I brought her home on 3 July 2008. The doctors expected her to last a few weeks. She lived till 2nd October, 2 years and 3 months.

She remained lucid. They gave time for me and my children to come to terms with the inevitable. In the final few months, her faculties declined. She could not speak but her cognition remained.

She looked forward to have me talk to her every evening.

Her last wish she shared with me was to enjoin our children to have our ashes placed together, as we were in life.

The last two years of her life were the most difficult. She was bedridden after small successive strokes; she could not speak but she was still cognisant.

Every night she would wait for me to sit by her to tell her of my day’s activities and to read her favourite poems. Then she would sleep.

I have precious memories of our 63 years together. Without her, I would be a different man, with a different life. She devoted herself to me and our children.

She was always there when I needed her. She has lived a life full of warmth and meaning.

I should find solace at her 89 years of her life well lived. But at this moment of the final parting, my heart is heavy with sorrow and grief.

* This eulogy by Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew was delivered at the funeral service of his wife, Madam Kwa Geok Choo at a private ceremony at Mandai Cremetorium today.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.

Earlier last week I paid a visit to the team in the Nuffnang Philippines office. I get this really nice feeling whenever I go to the Nuffnang Philippines office because it’s in this really nice area in Manila called Fort Bonifacio. The placed used to be an old Fort and one of the richest Filipino families (The Ayala family) developed it into this really nice place with apartments, office buildings and a great high street for shopping. I always remember how in the car I would turn a corner into this beautiful development and see the Nuffnang signboard on one of the buildings

It’s actually the only one of our 4 offices that actually has an outdoor signboard… or in this case, actually two of them.

I spent most of my day meeting the team getting updates on how Nuffnang Philippines is doing and also sharing with them things we’ve done in Malaysia. Here’s a picture of me sharing a video that Cindy and Huai Bin did for the Guinness Arthur’s Day contest.

Everyone went.. “WOAH!” when they saw the hard kissing. The Nuffnang Philippines team has really really grown. I remember how we had only about 2 staff when we first started off. Now it’s growing so fast that every time I drop by the Philippines I meet new Nuffies that I hadn’t met before in my previous trip.

The team culture there really reminds me of back home. Everyone works really hard and is really really fun. Whenever anyone has a problem with his/her area of work, everyone else will come in to help out or talk things out regardless of whether it’s in their job scope or not. Tweetjacking is also a problem in the Nuffnang Philippines office. So I even saw this warning note on one of the desks.

Other things they put at their work stations apart from this little teddy bear

is this that I found on Trixie’s desk.

Trixie is this young hip girl who does Blogger Relations and apparently refuses to give up her single life for a boyfriend.

When she came into work that day, Judd poked fun saying

“Trixie forgot to wear pants”.

She’s a fun girl!

For dinner that day everyone decided to take me to this new art-sy place called The Collectives.

When I first stood outside it looked like this really dodgy place that I would never step into without an army of bodyguards. I wasn’t sure what to expect but the team thought that I would like it so I trusted them. True enough I did! It turned out to be this awesome place I had never ever experienced before in Manila or anywhere in South-East Asia for that matter.

Inside it was this whole area with all sorts of cool shops ranging from art galleries, bars, ramen houses and even tattoo parlours. It’s like the kind of place where they threw out convention and any form of restriction to a group of young people and they made the most out of it. The walls in there were decorated with graffiti art.

We stopped by one of the art galleries that caught out attention and found that it wasn’t just an art gallery. It had a toy collection too. Not just any toys but limited edition ones.

Like this one.

Every toy that was made by an artist had a story behind it. This one is supposed to be Manny Pacquiao vs Mickey Mouse, the two heavyweight of their old world. Mickey Mouse of course representing the heavyweight from the Disney family. There were only a small number of these ever made and I thought it was the kind of thing that Ming would love. I almost bought it for Ming but I wasn’t 100% sure if this would be his kind of thing. Plus it was going to be so hard to bring back because it came in these huge boxes.

The prize tag also was… woah…. both of them, which came in a pair cost a little less than RM2,000. There we met this nice lady named Gabby Dela Merced who the Nuffies immediately recognized. They told me she was a famous Filipino race car driver.

I googled around and it’s true. Check out her Wikipedia page.

It wasn’t just me who huddled around to take pictures with her. Eric and Jay followed suit too 🙂

Anyway Gaby’s really passionate about collectable toys and she told us so much about them. Her favourite toy designer is Michael Lau and this is one of the works that she had.

She painted a picture for us of this other toy world out there where artists made these “Vinyl”  toys that ended up being worth even tens of thousands of USD. The artists are like celebrities to their fans. Gaby was just telling us how that very weekend she was flying to Hong Kong just to attend a preview of one famous artist there displaying his toys.

Apart from the toys, stored inside these used arcade machines were records.

Like actual vinyl records. You know the big black discs they use in the old days. And they had it for some of the latest Eminem albums and all. I never knew they still produced these things for the latest music.

After exploring the gallery we went for dinner and decided on this little vegetarian ramen shop. I like small little quaint restaurants like that. This one only had a few tables and a blackboard for a menu.

We had to split into a few different tables but here’s my table.

So that everyone was my trip to Nuffnang Philippines. I had such a great time there! Thank you for the company and for taking good care of me in Manila Nuffies!

Tomorrow I fly again for work. Until then … 🙂

I’ve been all over the place lately guys so forgive my sparse blogging. I was in Manila from Monday to Wednesday this week to visit the Nuffnang Philippines team. Quite a great trip indeed. Then I came back on Wednesday only to find out that my car broke down again. This time two things in a row. The car battery had to be changed and the steering rack had a gasket lose that was causing a leak or something. Cost of the damage was unbelievable.

Then I had to do some stuff in the office and in a few days I’m off to Hong Kong for a work trip. Too many things to do, too little time. I did however manage to have my night free tonight though. I was supposed to spend it blogging but alas… I iz sorry. I haz failed you. Instead I spent it playing Starcraft 2, training my Zerg because my brother yesterday told me that my Zerg gameplay needed work. Tomorrow’s another work day but I’ll blog about my Philippines trip in the next few entries ok?

In the mean time I’ll leave you with this picture.

It’s a picture of some of the Nuffies in the Philippines having a Karaoke session on my last night there. I gotta tell you one thing… Filipinos can sing! Holy shit it’s not even funny! I felt embarrassed to sing. Come to think of it actually our Nuffies in Malaysia have got pretty good talent too. Someone suggested a Nuffie Malaysia vs Nuffie Philippines Sing-off.

One thing the Filipinos can do that I think even the Nuffies in Malaysia can’t though. They can rap. Man you should see them sing Empire State of Mind…. chorus AND rap!

Also, let me leave you with one of my favourite Disney songs.

It’s a song I’m currently addicted to and it’s not really among the usual well-known Disney songs… but I love it!

See you guys. Have a good Friday!

I was thinking of what was left to my previous Tokyo Trip that I haven’t blogged about yet and I realized they were all just these scattered moments captured in pictures on my camera. So I’m going to just put the pictures up and tell you what led up to that moment.

This is a picture I took while we were at Tokyo Disneyland.

I really really love Disneyland. So much that whenever I went I would take a picture of the park that would remind me how beautiful and how happy the place was.

This is the first picture we took at Tokyo Disneyland’s entrance with the JPB Team.

It was the girls’ first time at a Disneyland (except for Elaine who had gone to Hong Kong Disneyland months back).

The group was kinda split on the kind of rides that we wanted to go for. Some of us really liked going on scary rides, some didn’t. I used to not like rollercoasters and all but I overcame my fear some time in university and now I love them! As long as they’re not too extreme of course

Here’s a picture of Splash Mountain. One of those drop rides that we went for. It wasn’t really that bad a drop but the anticipation was fun. You know how it feels like. Like your ride starts going up this steep slope. Then you see the ride in front of you reach the top then drop and the people in it screaming. It’s the anticipation that’s painful. Not so much the drop itself.

Ming on the other hand loves his favourite “tea-cup ride”.You know the kind of ride where you sit in a T-Cup and just spin round and round as fast as you can.

Mike, Ming and I got on one and we spun ours so fast I think we went into the future and back.

At the end of the long day at Tokyo Disneyland, the of us guys just sat on a bench and I had a churros. Gotta love Disneyland churros. They’re yummy.

The whole day was really hot but it had cooled down a bit by the end of the day so we just sat down and basked in the magical Disney atmosphere.

Here’s a picture of the group of us who went.

Xiaxue and Ringo couldn’t stand the heat after a while and they just decided to “fuk it” and go back to Tokyo to shop. Probably at Shibuya 109 or something. You guys remember Shibuya 109 right? The place where no man should ever go with his gf… or risk never coming out again. Really!

Let me refresh your memory. This is Shibuya 109.

If your gf ever suggests you go inside just to “take a quick look”. You say… “NO WAY WOMAN.. U GONNA HAVE TO BEAT ME UNCONSCIOUS AND DRAG ME IN THERE!!!”

Speaking of shopping though. Here are a couple of things I brought back from Tokyo. Pinky and I were looking for stuff to bring back for the Nuffies (apart from yummy Japanese biscuits and all) and we found these cute little things that you hang on your phone.

They come in all shapes, not just this Sumo wrestler here. But it’s special! What’s special about it is it has this little hold in the middle (see the tummy), where you can look inside it and there’ll be a magnified picture of something. Like a picture of Mount Fuji or a picture of a Shrine with the words Japan on it.

It’s not cheap for a little thing like that. Each one costs like RM12-15 or something and I had to buy about 25 of them for the people back in the KL office.

One another thing that I brought back from Tokyo was something Ming gave me. We were at a shrine and there was a shop selling these little charms. There were all sorts of different charms, some for love, some for safety etc etc. Ming bought the both of us one each.

It’s supposed to be a Victory Charm!

So victory baby!

I went to Guinness’ Arthur’s Day on Friday night. Just like last year, it was held in Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach but the line-up of artists this year was different. Instead of Black Eyed Peas that they had last year, this year they brought Flo Rida and Sean Kingston over! There were some local acts too and I wanted to watch Mizz Nina perform with Colby but man I was stuck in the biggest Friday evening jam all the way from KL to Sunway. By the time I reached the outside of the park, I heard Mizz Nina performing already. It had also started to rain and everyone around us was like getting to as much cover as they could.

Anyway I quickly got in and the first person I saw was Eileen here who was wearing this lighted up Guinness sign on her shirt that will light up whenever someone speaks close to it.

I thought it was so cool I took a picture of it and she noted that it was the first time someone had taken pictures of her chest.

After taking photos of Eileen’s chest,  Sean Kingston came on. We braved the rain and I ended up getting pretty wet until I saw some people with rain coats. I went to ask them where they got it from and I found out that the organizers were already giving them out. What good planning!

Once I had my raincoat on, I began enjoying the rain. Loved dancing in the rain and drinking Guinness. I almost forgot about how I looked like a giant blue condom. Allow me to illustrate how I look.

This is me and KY.

Now picture me in the rain, holding a cup of Guinness bopping around to the music and you’ll notice some resemblance to a “condomed” vibrator. I was having a good time though. I was dancing around some random strangers and I just raised my cup of Guinness to them and said “TO ARTHUR!” and they reciprocated. Everyone was having fun.

Soon enough, Kitteh messaged me

She asked me to meet her at Arthur’s Lounge so I headed over there only to find her in a nice sheltered air conditioned area with the rest.

I sat down with everyone for a while to have some drinks and a lot of good laughs.

Here’s me with Desmond, KY, Haze and unknown girl who covered her face to prevent being photographed and put on my blog.

After all the drinks, I felt that I was ready to go… to the FUN ZONE! That means to the big crowd at the front of the stage where we could just stand there and dance to the music. Met up with Pinky and Michelle there and we all just started dancing around.

Let me just say this. Flo Rida is a friggin good entertainer. I mean it’s not just all the great songs he has in his pocket but he did all sorts of things to interact with the crowd. At first he started signing towels and throwing them into the crowd. Then he took it a step higher and removed his gold watch from his risk and gave it to someone in the crowd. Everyone in the crowd screamed to get picked for it! I don’t know which lucky dude managed to go home with it.

Then towards the end when he was singing a new song from his soon to be released album, he had one of his bodyguards carry him into the crowd while everyone touched him and all.

I got close enough to him to take this picture. Flo Rida is the man! That’s all I can say.

One of my favourite parts of the night though was when they released these big soft Guinness balls into the crowd.

Everyone around the balls had their hands in the air pushing the ball around. At first it was far in front and it got closer and closer to me and the rest in the back. I so badly wanted to touch the ball too so I went back and forth chasing the ball but I kept missing it. I was either too short to reach it or not fast enough to get to it.

After like 5 minutes of chasing it I gave up. I went back to Michelle and Pinky who were happily dancing anyway

and I sighed.

“I didn’t get to touch the ball”.

Michelle then pointed behind me. I turned around only to see the ball heading straight for me. I pushed it up again and back into the crowd in front of me. I got to push it a few more times then until it slowly drifted away. Ahh.. so fun.

The night ended with fireworks… a really long one too!

After the performances ended, we spent some time at the VIP After Party but were so tired we went back shortly after.

Thank you for the great fun night Guinness!

TO ARTHUR!

On one of the days that we were in Tokyo, we got up early one morning and started walking to the nearest subway. Right outside our apartment there was a garbage truck collecting rubbish. The garbage trucks in Tokyo are a lot smaller than the ones we’re used to back home… maybe to make it easier to go through small alleys to collect stuff.

At first we couldn’t smell anything so we thought that it was some kind of Hi-Tech Japanese odorless Japanese garbage truck but as we got closer to it we realized we were wrong.

Yep… garbage in Japan smells like garbage everywhere else in the world. One thing different about the truck though was we noticed how they put all these cute teddy bears on its side.

It’s like they unwanted teddy bears were pickedup by the guys and they used it to “cute-en” up the truck.

They all look like they were in good condition too.

After we passed the truck we got to the train station and headed to the real reason why we were going to Tokyo: For a tradeshow.

It’s supposed to be the largest trade show of its kind in Tokyo and it was held in this huge convention center.

I’ve never been to anything like it before. I wish they allowed me to take pictures of the inside but they didn’t so I’m going to have to try describe it in words. It’s like they have many many halls filled with booths. Each of these booths are uniquely decorated and they all exhibit products that are really novel or cute. But you can’t buy any of it though because it’s only for suppliers there to find distributors for their products. The only way you can get it is if you order in large quantities.

I’m secretly glad that they didn’t allow me to buy any of the products though because if they did, I would have spent sooo much money. They have all sorts of cool things. Like tissue box covers that make sound whenever you pull a tissue from it, or like modern shaped lamps or even like these little teddy bears that can open up into a eco-grocery bag.

A number of the exhibitors were suspicious of us though. Whenever they saw us, they would get protective, thinking that we’re from China and would just copy their designs and have it made in China for a quarter of the price. It helped when we told them that we were from Malaysia and Singapore.

We spent two full days at the trade show.

On the first day we just went to take a look at the products and the second day we actually went to talk to the people there. We made a lot of contacts and learned a lot of new things about how things are done in the retail world. Like how if a retail product was being sold for RM10, its distributor would be able to buy it from the supplier at half the cost so they would make a 50% profit of whatever they sold. For some products it’s even higher.

It was a really tiring two days though, but it was quite an experience. It was my first but something tells me it won’t be my last trade show. My favourite thing about the trade show though, this little fat cat mascot.

It was so cute. It was so big so it only took very small steps at a time and had to be guided by an official. Then it would stop when it sees someone walk past and it would wave his short little stumpy hand. Damn cute!

All the Japanese women who walked past it went “Kawaiii!!!”

Okay first I have to say this. This is not an advertorial. Nuffnang is running a campaign for Solvil Titus now but it doesn’t involve me as a blogger. I’m writing this entry because this video caught my attention and I thought it was really cute. Ok first watch this video.

It’s basically this love story about this couple where the girl in the end decides to break up with the guy. There are 4 parts of the story that I found amusing:

1) When the girl asked for a break up right after the guy asked for eggs in his instant noodles. The guy then responded saying “I will never ask for eggs again”. HAHA! Poor guy didn’t know what hit him.

2) During the flashback of when they first met when they were on the motorbikes and the girl called out to him. I thought the girl there was damn cute and I thought it was damn funny how she said something like “We have the same helmet!”, pointing at their bright orange helmet. Hahaha.. that’s the kind of stupid thing that I can imagine Kitteh saying to me. Too bad we didn’t meet in such romantic circumstances. In fact the way we met was really really boring.

3) Loved the part at the end when she asked him how much he loved her and he refused to answer and she kept insisting for an answer. What a cute couple!

4) Loved the song from the video too. Ahhh Faye Wong’s the best!

Anyway the story has a bit of a continuation. It shows first the guy’s point of view.

And then the girl’s point of view… of why she fell out of love.

I guess the whole point of the story was to highlight the theme how love changes with time. Speaking of which, the 10th of October is coming up soon and that’s going to be Kitteh and my’s 2 year anniversary. That’s an important mark for our relationship because Kitteh knows that any relationship I have doesn’t go past the 2 year mark much. So… fingers crossed!!!

Before I start with the entry, let me just share something else in the mean time 🙂

Guess what Kitteh and I saw the other day on Federal Highway. While people spend lots of money customizing their car, putting in spoilers that make the car look like it can fly into space and back, this guy had a more creative way of customizing his Pajero.

He put all these little magnet things of different kinds of cartoon characters. That sure caught a lot of attention.

Really cool huh?

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So it’s like that. Kitteh and I were at Gurney Plaza Penang one weekend to catch up with Gin and Natalie for coffee. The next day we checked our e-mail and we got this nice e-mail from our readers. I think I’ve said before that this is my biggest joy when it comes to blogging. Getting e-mails or comments from readers. Eventhough I don’t always get to reply them, it’s something that really keeps me going so sometimes I like to share them with everyone else. So here’s this one, from a nice guy named Sze Ming.

Thank you for the e-mail Sze Ming.

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Hey Tim and Audrey,

My girlfriend and I were behind you guys at Coffee Bean Gurney Plaza on Saturday. Audrey caught my eye then my eyes automatically tried hunting Tim down. The monkey on your T-shirt served as a good confirmation. Started telling my girlfriend all about you two and how entrepreneurial you are, Tim . Think you might have overheard her saying repeatedly “Do you want a picture? Sure you don’t want a picture with them?” Cause she could see how excited I was by just describing you two to her. And I was there telling her “Nah…don’t need to disturb and interrupt people’s day out”. If you two hadn’t noticed or heard the mumbling behind you, yea.. that was going on behind you two. haha.

Just wanted to say you two are really so awesome together. It was great reading about you guys online especially how you two go about in life as a couple and it was certainly even more awesome just seeing you guys out and about..right in front of my eyes. And Tim, I really look up to what you have made out of your life especially at such a young age. Keep up what you’re doing and believe me..you’re inspiring alot more people than just this Penang Boy here.

Hope you guys had a pleasant trip back to Penang and hope to see you guys around Penang once again.

Best regards,
Ming.

P/S. From time to time, I can find myself drifting away and imagining myself being part of the Nuffnang group. lol. And yes..I do regret not grabbing a quick shot with you guys on that pleasant Saturday afternoon.

Kitteh and I were always talking about how we’ve become a “boring couple” since we got together. We used to go clubbing all the time or to bars or all sorts of different things when we were still dating. But now all we do is watch TV at home or tap away on our computers. So on Malaysia Day Eve this week Kitteh and I decided to go with some of the Nuffies to Velvet. The plan was to go just for a while and just have a few drinks since I had to dial in to a conference call early the next morning. That plan though, went out the window when we got there.

We bumped into some friends who were celebrating a birthday so drinks were going around like Coke bottles being filled on a conveyor belt. I can’t remember how many drinks I had but I remember feeling a kick by the time I got to the champagne. Finally the clock hit 1.30AM and Kitteh came up to me saying that she wasn’t feeling well. I decided to call it a night and told my friends that I was leaving… I was met with a few “WHAT?!?! SO EARLYY?!?!” and “LAST DRINK LAST DRINK!!!”.

After the goodbyes we stumbled out of Velvet (Zouk), walking past the Ferraris, Lambos and SLs parked outside. I was admiring the cars when I happened to notice that the cars were all slightly and slowly swaying left to right. Then it hit me, the cars weren’t moving.. my head was. I knew then I was totally unfit to drive home…. legally and even practically. I had a flashback to a conversation I had with Kitteh a few hours ago before we left for Zouk. I was suggesting that we didn’t drive but have a friend pick us up.

Her reply:
“Nooo laaah! No need lahh! I drive la I drive.. you can drink.”.

Back in present time, I took a look at Kitteh and she looked so drunk I was sure she wasn’t even in a position to ride one of these tricycles let alone drive a car.

Fortunately I didn’t listen to her. So my friend dropped us back.

At my front door, I was fidgeting with my house keys when Kitteh told me
“Baby faster open the door, I need to puke”.

Normally upon hearing declarations like this I would freak out and kick the door open or something. In that instance though, I don’t know if it was the alcohol hardening my nerves or something but I somehow didn’t think then that it would be a big deal even if she threw up all over me. Plus it was so hard trying to get a key into a keyhole when you’re high. When I finally did, Kitteh shoved the door open and ran for the living room toilet. By the time I closed the front door behind us I heard her puking from the toilet. My first instinct was to walk to the toilet to see if Kitteh was okay but my body wouldn’t let me. I needed to go pass out somewhere, preferably my bed so that I wouldn’t wake up with a bruise on my head. So I just went upstairs and was about to collapse on to my bed before I realized that I hate smelling of smoke and sleeping on my bed. So I dragged my drunk ass to the shower, forced a quick shower and even brushed my teeth. By the time I got out of the shower, Kitteh was passed out on the bed. I tucked her telling her to sleep but she said “Nooo!! I need to get up to shower”.

I told her she didn’t need to and after that… I fell asleep.

I woke up the next morning fortunately with no hangover and in time to dial into my 10AM conference call. It was a public holiday in Malaysia but the Nuffies overseas were all working so I had to dial-in. Kitteh got up shortly after me and we both laughed about the night before. We agreed that was the most drunk we’ve been in a long time. It was certainly our first time being… drunk couple.

Because Ming is all about culture and all that, while we were in Tokyo he got us to visit another shrine! The Asakusa Shrine. This one is much bigger than the Meiji Shrine we visited and because it had a lot more people, we didn’t have to worry so much about keeping our voices down. Back at the Meiji Shrine everyone was so quiet that whenever we talked I felt as if the whole Shrine heard us and it’s not like we were shouting or anything.

The entrance to the Shrine is represented by this big gate with a lantern in the middle. Right after the gate is a long row of shops where tourists can buy all sorts of different souvenirs. When it comes to like Japanese-sy kind of souvenirs, Ming says that nothing beats this marketplace. They sell everything from Kimonos to Japanese hand-painted fans to even food stuff like biscuits and seaweed

We saw this shop that sold cold green-tea and we all bought a cup each. All we were expecting was a good cold drink because it was so hot but we were all pleasantly surprised by how good it tasted. It had so much flavour it tasted like green-tea X 1,000!!!

Bought some souvenirs for the Nuffies too. Ended up buying these little things that are more expensive than it looks. Heck they were like RM12 or something each but they’re not just any little keychain thingies. They were special!

They had a hole in each of them where you could look into it and see some kind of image inside. Sort of like a kaleidoscope! Like Mr. Sumo here.

Also saw this old Japanese man making some fu chuk stuff. He did it so smoothly like he had been doing it for many many years.

After we got through the shopping we finally reached the Shrine.

Before you get into the shrine you’re supposed to do two things though. First there is this little pavilion with burning incense where you’re supposed to use your hand and slowly fan some of the smoke to yourself (just like how people in the picture are doing it). It’s supposed to ward off evil spirits.

After that you go to this other corner where you’re supposed to use the water there to wash your hands before you go into the Shrine. Everyone had to do it. Even this cute little girl here that was dressed in a Kimono.

Once inside the shrine you can do something that really reminds me of all the Hong Kong TV dramas I’ve seen while growing up. You know in those TV shows, you would have one of the characters go to the temple and then shake this cylinder thing until a stick comes out that reads your fortune? Well in Japan we have that too.

This is Pinky finding her fortune.

She shook this metal cylinder thing until that stick came out. The stick then had a number on it that told her which drawer to open to find her fortune. I know some people who’re afraid to do things like that and would rather just not know their future for fear that it might be bad but Pinky certainly wasn’t one of them. Her fortune turned out to be good though.

We decided to head back after we had finished seeing everything we could in the Shrine but we had a nice little surprise at the end. After we exited the Shrine we saw a couple of Japanese girls fully dressed in Kimonos. The girls decided that they thad to take a picture with them. I thought they were really pretty.

Something about Kimonos just make girls look even prettier to me!

So that was Asakusa Shrine 🙂