Today I experienced an EPIC traffic jam in KL. It was raining cats, dogs, dinosaurs and hippos during rush hour and my destination was somewhere off the LDP. I could seriously use one of those flying cars the Jetsons use to get around.

Anyway this will be a short entry. Some friends came together last weekend for a long lunch at Delicious.

Jia Jer… my friend whom I got to know at college, then followed me to London for university and then back to KL to work again. Goodbye for he has moved away to Australia and left us behind to live the good relaxing Aussie life.

Goodbye Jia Jer! We will miss you!

Trivia: My friend Jia Jer whom I’ve known for many years is actually the elder brother of Princess’ good friend Jia Meei.

Such a small small world!

Small world ride in Disneyland Hong Kong! Whee…

Speaking of a small world. Let me tell you another story.

Years ago while I was studying in London I knew this guy (whom I will refer to here as) Alfred. He was a nice guy and all but he was going through a tough time in his life. He had broken up with his ex-gf (whom I will name here as Susan) for like… 1-2 years or something and he was still hung over. Like he couldn’t stop talking about her and tell people how much he loved her and all that.

One day Alfred told me about how Susan’s best friend had actually sent him a really nasty e-mail scolding him for something he (wrongfully) accused Susan and telling him to fuckoff and leave Susan alone (you know standing up for her best friend). Being a fellow guy-friend of his I just shook my head and said “What a bitch!”.

3-4 years later I had already gotten together with Princess.

One day I was telling her about this friend of mine (Alfred) who was heartbroken over his ex and how his ex’s bitch best friend had sent him a nasty e-mail to scold him. Princess gave me a rather peculiar look for a while… then I realized that Susan’s “bitch best friend”, was actually Princess.

What a small world indeed!

Last weekend was a long weekend, one where Princess and I had done everything we normally do on weekends. We’ve spent time with her parents, had meals with my brother, watched a movie, watched lots of TV and done lots of reading so much that we had almost run out of things to do.

So on Saturday afternoon we were all just lying around at home trying to think of what to do. All our friends were all busy so we had no one to meet up with (or possibly none of our friends wanted to hang out with us. Maybe we embarrass them in public with the stupid things we do).

Then we were thinking of going out at night for drinks and all but again we had no one to meet up with. So Princess and I started talking about how we had become…. a typical boring couple. Gone were the days where we had loads to do on weekends. Lots of friends houses to go to, lots of drinking at night and dancing in clubs. Lots of those kind of stuff.

Now all we do is stay at home, watch TV, read books and entertain one another by doing stupid things like hiding behind a door when the other walks into a room. Just before we were about to succumb to boredom I decided to take matters into our own hands.

We thought of doing some really random things on impulse. Princess and I come up with all sorts of ideas for things like that. Like one idea was to go to the airport, take the next flight to Phuket or something and go for a couple of days.

Other simpler ideas we came up with was to go look at the showrooms of new apartments and check out the show units (pretending to be potential buyers… you know a newly wed couple looking for a home to buy).

Trouble with that gig though was that me and Princess often look and dress so young, they’ll probably chase us out of the showroom or ask us “Are you both lost? Where’s mummy and daddy?”

Last Saturday though we decided to do something that could’ve gone really wrong. We decided to bake or make something. When thinking of the possibilities of what we could make we got ourselves excited but not nearly as excited as when we thought about the possibility of opening our own bakery some day. “Timothy & Audrey’s Leetle Bakery!” (Yah I know we get too far ahead of ourselves sometimes).

Phew… right after we fantasized about that we got to work immediately.

We googled around and we found an easy recipe to make Oreo Truffles on this website! All we needed was cream cheese, chocolate and lots of Oreos. Best part was that it was easy to make. We didn’t even have to use the oven and risk burning down my place. So we hopped into the car and drove to the nearest supermarket to buy the ingredients.

An hour later we came home, had dinner first and started work on Project Oreo Truffles.

First we had to break up the Oreo cookies.

Then once they’ve all become powder-like, we put it the cream cheese to mix it all around.

Then we melt the Hershey’s chocolate chips we melt to make chocolate.

And this is where most of the time is spent. Rolling it into little balls and swirling it in the chocolate.

After that you sprinkle any of the leftover “Oreo-powder” on it and put it in the fridge to harden.

The whole process took us 90 minutes though I think we just sucked and a pro would’ve been able to do it sooner.

You know what else a pro would’ve been able to do?

This is how the Oreo Truffles were supposed to look like.

This is how our Oreo Truffels looked like.

I was shocked at the difference! One looked like how truffels was supposed to look and ours looked like… pieces of tar you pick up from Jalan Kuching.

PRESENTATION FAIL!

Nevertheless I brought it to work for the Nuffies to try and they all loved it. HAH!

Don’t judge a book by its cover (or a truffel by its outer chocolate layer).

Then again you can’t really get it wrong when it comes to the taste right? I mean you are after all just putting the exact same things into a bowl and mixing it together. Haha! No matter!!! That was still Timothy & Audrey’s first truffles! Next we might actually bake something.

Stand back world!!! More ugly but nice food coming your way from Tim & Audrey!

Last weekend was a long weekend, one where Princess and I had done everything we normally do on weekends. We’ve spent time with her parents, had meals with my brother, watched a movie, watched lots of TV and done lots of reading so much that we had almost run out of things to do.

So on Saturday afternoon we were all just lying around at home trying to think of what to do. All our friends were all busy so we had no one to meet up with (or possibly none of our friends wanted to hang out with us. Maybe we embarrass them in public with the stupid things we do).

Then we were thinking of going out at night for drinks and all but again we had no one to meet up with. So Princess and I started talking about how we had become…. a typical boring couple. Gone were the days where we had loads to do on weekends. Lots of friends houses to go to, lots of drinking at night and dancing in clubs. Lots of those kind of stuff.

Now all we do is stay at home, watch TV, read books and entertain one another by doing stupid things like hiding behind a door when the other walks into a room. Just before we were about to succumb to boredom I decided to take matters into our own hands.

We thought of doing some really random things on impulse. Princess and I come up with all sorts of ideas for things like that. Like one idea was to go to the airport, take the next flight to Phuket or something and go for a couple of days.

Other simpler ideas we came up with was to go look at the showrooms of new apartments and check out the show units (pretending to be potential buyers… you know a newly wed couple looking for a home to buy).

Trouble with that gig though was that me and Princess often look and dress so young, they’ll probably chase us out of the showroom or ask us “Are you both lost? Where’s mummy and daddy?”

Last Saturday though we decided to do something that could’ve gone really wrong. We decided to bake or make something. When thinking of the possibilities of what we could make we got ourselves excited but not nearly as excited as when we thought about the possibility of opening our own bakery some day. “Timothy & Audrey’s Leetle Bakery!” (Yah I know we get too far ahead of ourselves sometimes).

Phew… right after we fantasized about that we got to work immediately.

We googled around and we found an easy recipe to make Oreo Truffles on this website! All we needed was cream cheese, chocolate and lots of Oreos. Best part was that it was easy to make. We didn’t even have to use the oven and risk burning down my place. So we hopped into the car and drove to the nearest supermarket to buy the ingredients.

An hour later we came home, had dinner first and started work on Project Oreo Truffles.

First we had to break up the Oreo cookies.

Then once they’ve all become powder-like, we put it the cream cheese to mix it all around.

Then we melt the Hershey’s chocolate chips we melt to make chocolate.

And this is where most of the time is spent. Rolling it into little balls and swirling it in the chocolate.

After that you sprinkle any of the leftover “Oreo-powder” on it and put it in the fridge to harden.

The whole process took us 90 minutes though I think we just sucked and a pro would’ve been able to do it sooner.

You know what else a pro would’ve been able to do?

This is how the Oreo Truffles were supposed to look like.

This is how our Oreo Truffels looked like.

I was shocked at the difference! One looked like how truffels was supposed to look and ours looked like… pieces of tar you pick up from Jalan Kuching.

PRESENTATION FAIL!

Nevertheless I brought it to work for the Nuffies to try and they all loved it. HAH!

Don’t judge a book by its cover (or a truffel by its outer chocolate layer).

Then again you can’t really get it wrong when it comes to the taste right? I mean you are after all just putting the exact same things into a bowl and mixing it together. Haha! No matter!!! That was still Timothy & Audrey’s first truffles! Next we might actually bake something.

Stand back world!!! More ugly but nice food coming your way from Tim & Audrey!

A couple of nights ago the Nuffies came over to my place to have a little BBQ to celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of Nuffnang being around. We were actually thinking of doing a big party with bloggers and all but with all the events we had in January, our events team was too exhausted to put something like that together.

So instead, we had a BBQ at my place. Now here’s me being honest: I don’t really like BBQs. Why? Because here’s what always happens at BBQs I go for:

1) You end up eating undercooked food.

2) You end up eating overcooked food (burnt).

3) You never get enough food because there are too many people to feed and not enough BBQ pits to serve everyone at least in the beginning half when you’re hungry.

The Nuffies suggested a BBQ though, so I decided to go along with it and the truth was, while I had my fair share of undercooked and overcooked food that night, I still had fun.

Here’s how it started off.

1) Right after work, some of us came over to my place first to set things up. The other half of the Nuffies were all busy with work and had to stay back in the office.

Yee Hou was put in charge of starting up the fire since he seemed to be the only experienced one among all the guys.

All Robb and I did was watch.

The girls made fun of us not taking the lead in starting the fire and said “How manly….. “ but Robb and I weren’t bothered. We were BBQ noobs, no point hiding that. I do now know how to start it all up. Quite easy really.

All you need is just to put these firestarters in with the charcoal and wait for it to light up.

If any smart alecs are going to say “Real men don’t need firestarters to start fires… we use sticks and stones”… well all I gotta say is, why bother when you have Cock brand firestarters.

I always thought that would make a great brand for condoms (Cock Brand – Ribbed & Ready) but instead they come up with a Cock brand for everything else BUT condoms.

2) While the guys were busy setting up the BBQ pits (or watching Yee Hou do it), the girls were in the kitchen making some preparations.

Linda and Sara here were busy preparing the potatoes that we were going to butter up and wrap in foil to put in the pit later on.

Feeling totally useless while waiting for the charcoal to heat up, I decided to help.

Today is the 3rd year that Nuffnang’s been around.

To remind myself on what we’ve been through in the first and second year I read the previous entries I wrote in the first and second year of Nuffnang. Then I’m reminded by how lucky I am to still have all I have today: To be part of a growing company, to love the people I work with (ie the Nuffies and our clients) and very importantly to feel a sense of belonging to the Nuffnangers who support us till today.

We posted up an announcement on our Facebook fan page just past midnight today and in half an hour we had like.. 40 comments from Nuffnangers on Facebook wishing us a Happy Birthday in the middle of the night.

Thank you for the wishes guys. Nuffnang’s birthday is something we all share together.

Thank you for helping us do the amazing things we’ve been fortunate enough to do all this while. I feel humbled by your ever-lasting support.

To read our official announcement on the Nuffnang blog drafted by the Nuffies, click here.

On one particular day many months ago, I finally yielded into the pressure. More and more of the Nuffies started getting Blackberries and Ming finally stamped his foot down. He said that I had to get a Blackberry for the sake of productivity and for the sake of communicating with the team better.

So I got myself the Blackberry Bold 2 and I’ve been using it for months. I still use my iPhone for regular calls and my Blackberry as a pure e-mail phone.

I gotta say that with the Blackberry I suddenly realize that I have a lot more time to do everything else. Why?

Well because whenever I’m idle.

You know either waiting in a lift or waiting for someone or for a meeting to start, I go use my Blackberry to clear my e-mails quickly. So by the time I finally get back to my workstation at the office, I would’ve already been up to speed with my e-mails and I can just work on other things.

Of course the iPhone can check e-mails too but it’s just not as stable or quick as a Blackberry if you ask me. That’s not to say the iPhone sucks though. I think the iPhone is a great phone with loads of apps that I still use. The latest app I now use is called Sleep Cycle where it tracks your sleeping patterns and tries to wake you up at the right time each morning so you don’t feel like shit when you wake up in the mornings.

Truth is, the iPhone can do a lot more things than the Blackberry but what makes the Blackberry so good is that it is very very very good in doing a few things and those few things it excels in happen to be the things you probably use the most. For me it’s e-mails and the BBM.

I love my Blackberry and the truth is I’m really addicted to it now. Can’t let go of it. The great thing I like about it too is how it compresses data so well so much that whenever I’m overseas now I actually data roam for e-mails and the data roaming charges aren’t that expensive. I only use the e-mail function when I data roam though (if you use the browser or something I think that’ll be a whole different story).

Like when I was in Singapore a few weeks back, I was actively receiving and replying e-mails throughout the whole day on my data roaming. It only cost me RM20 for the day on my Xpax Prepaid Blackberry credit.

That’s really affordable. To give you a perspective, I was in London and I made a 2 minute call to a Malaysian mobile phone on my Maxis roaming iPhone and it cost me something like RM25 for that two minute call. Yeah I know if my iPhone was on another telco apart from Maxis the roaming charges may have been cheaper (my friend told me that Celcom roaming charges are 1/3 the cost of Maxis roaming but I don’t know how accurate that is though) but still, RM25 is like what you pay for internet in a hotel room you stay in.

Besides, once my iPhone contract with Maxis expires I’m switching my iPhone line to DiGi. I hear DiGi’s a lot cheaper in terms of rates and I’ve always wanted to be on DiGi. So Celcom on my Blackberry, DiGi on my iPhone.

So the truth is everyone that yes… while I still love my iPhone, I love my Blackberry just as much. I asked myself once that if I had to pick one, which would I have… (or which one do I hold to sleep each night)

Was driving around one day around Bukit Ceylon and saw this road sign.

Last night I went to Li Tat’s CNY Open House. In light of the CNY spirit, we were all sitting on plastic chairs outside his house while having some stuff to eat off the buffet while catching up with one another. Actually it was more Princess than me since it was the first time I had met many of the people there but Princess on the other hand seemed to know them all… you know Subang people.

So we were all in the Nuffnang KL office the other day trying to figure out how to improve our office. We had some ideas, like having a PS3 with Band Hero (just like the Nuffnang SG office), to upgrading our pantry to loads of other stuff. Some things we did manage to do. Like we got this coffee machine that now dispenses Nescafe, Milo, Green Tea and Teh Tarik. All the Nuffies have to do is press a button and every Nuffie can have as many cups as they want.

We basically made this board and today we put out some announcements for any Nuffnangers to send in their pictures and/or notes so we can put it up on the wall.

Sorry for the lack of updates everyone. It’s CNY and I’m in Penang doing what Penangites do on Chinese New Year. CNY is a good time though there are some things that I like and some that I don’t.

Things I like:

1) Catching up with family again – I like how Malaysians have the culture of spending one time of the year meeting up with your family again. My family is pretty separated. Some of us in Penang and some overseas so it’s one of the few times of the year that we all come back and spend a few days together.

Even the Nuffies take advantage of New Year’s to have a meal together.

2) Ang Pow – Although this year I’ve been getting less because I’ve seen less relatives this year. My aunty just reminded me that this is probably one of the last few years I’ll be getting Ang Pow since I’ll probably get married some time in the next few years of my life. You know, getting old already… must settle down. Then I’ll be the one giving Ang Pow’s instead. Dammit the cost of marriage!

3) Chinese New Year COOKIES – THESE ARE EEEVIL. When I got home and saw all the CNY cookies we had, I went crazy. I can’t even remember how many pineapple tarts or peanut cookies I’ve had in the past 2 days alone but I won’t be surprised if it reached 100 of each. It’s crazy! Sigh… I’m going to be so fat I know it. My little cousin today poked my stomach and said “Fat…”.

I said “Watch when you grow old and your metabolism rate slows down boy!”

And he asked “What’s metabolism rate?”

Things I don’t quite like about CNY though:

1) How it’s SOO JAMMMED IN PENANG! Dammit.. Last night after my CNY dinner, I was driving home at 11.30PM and there was a huge traffic jam from Sunrise roundabout all the way back to Tanjung Bungah. AT 11.30PM ON A SUNDAY NIGHT!!! Then again, it’s all caused by people like me… Penangites from outstation that all come home to see family so okayy fine fine, there’s a good reason for the jam.

The traffic police also helped quite a bit though. On a CNY long weekend and even at 11.30PM at night, they were directing traffic trying to smoothen out the jam. Well done to the Polis Diraja Malaysia! Thank you for working hard so late at night on a public holiday.

2) How it’s always so hot – It’s soooo damn hot these few days I can’t bear to spend any time outdoors. It’s terrible! I wore out my brand new red New Year’s shirt and it was drenched in 20 minutes.

3) The Music – I don’t quite like the tong tong tong chiang Chinese New Year music. My mum asked me to play it in the house the other day so I started playing a CD. Both my sister and I looked at each other and talked about how we didn’t like this kind of music. Just then my uncle and Dad walked past us and said
“WAH I LOVE THIS SONG… *sings* TONG TONG TONG CHIANG … TONG TONG TONG CHIANG!!!”.

Something tells me one day when I’m 50 I’ll be dancing to this CNY song too and my kids will be thinking the same way about me.

I guess the good and bad come all as a whole package and the truth is, overall I like Chinese New Year. I remember missing Chinese New Year for 3 years while I was in London studying. Just made me feel more homesick, you know being away from family and all.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone 🙂