Basic Life

** Hey guys, just taking a moment to wish everyone a very belated Merry Christmas and an early Happy New Year! 2007 woot! Here I come! What are your New Year resolutions? **

Monkeying Around Penang

Slept at 2am and woke at 5am. I just sat there dazing out…until…suddenly…out of nowhere…

Morning prayers from the nearby mosque rang out as loud as if I was in the mosque itself. I was jolted into awareness and wondered, “Why does Quin’s alarm has the morning prayer in it?” Okay, so maybe not fully awake still.

I was still blur as I showered and got ready for the Penang trip. PB was to pick us up and then we were going to meet up with everyone else for dim sum. It was fun seeing all of us wearing the guild t-shirt. Hee, I felt more part of the guild instead of a lost monkey. After a hearty breakfast, a quick stop at a petrol station, we were on our way.

This time I spent the trip riding with Sala, Eekie and Spire. It was fun as we entertained each other with stories during our 3 hr trips. Viewed the scenery made more interesting by Sala’s info on each one. The cave where people from the Communist insurgency hid…well according to Sala, or maybe my memory may be faulty.

Beautiful weather that day as well.

Sala pointed out the temple built into a cliff (we went too fast to take a pic of it, it looks amazing though) and the spot where they shot part of the movie ‘Anna and the King’. The natural waterfall, the perils of driving around that area because not too long ago a boulder fell on the road, quarries that made the moutains look like giant pieces of nougat. Mom would love to go hashing in those hills. Palm trees, lots of palm trees…it brought me back to my geography lessons where I learned Palm oil is one of the resources of Malaysia.

I loved the scenery, you don’t get much of this while driving from KB to Bandar…the only place I can think of that can compare is Shah Bandar and that is only if you do the grunt work to hike the hills, only then can you enjoy the scenery.

A quick stop to grab some Baskin Robins (mmm, pistacio this time) where we were entertained by ‘It’s a Bug’s Life: The Adventure of the Cave of Wax’ written and directed by PB.

We went to pick up Pozart first at Butterworth? Why does that name keep popping up in my head? I think it’s wrong but I remember reading Butterworth there…why do I remember Butterworth??? Pozart is from BM, btw, but I have no idea what BM stands for.

I tot Pozart would look kinda round, cute and with a dancing hamster on his shoulder. He turned out to be like more of an anime char from Pokemon. I have no idea what his family must have thought about us…I mean if my online guild friends suddenly popped out of nowhere one Sunday and wanted to take me out for a fun filled day of board games, my mom would prolly locked me up in my room without an internet connection and throw away the key.

After kidnapping Poring we went off to pick up Gary. Now Sala said Gary looks like a romulan…although the resemblance is kinda uncanny (all he needs now are the ears to complete the romulan cosplay) Gary also has this permanent scowl on his face like he has the weight of the world upon him. I dunno whether he’s thinking about lunch or contemplating Socrates.

Off to Gurney Plaza to meet up with Cicak, Mach, Xiang and Wei Ho.

What to say about these fellas, hmm…

Cicak – Tall, he had an unfortunate encounter with a toothpick on his ear, sleepy fella like he just drank a whole bottle of nyquil before coming. I accidentally sponsored him a root beer.

Mach – Tall (ALL of the Penang trio are tall, what do they put in the Penang food kan?), bulky fella, likes to make fun of me and sea spiders.

Xiang – Very quiet kid which is suprising since online he’s the chattiest.

Wei Ho – I dunno who is cuter, Wei Ho or Pozart… Wei Ho looks like the Asian version of Harry Potter especially when he put the guild tee shirt on. ROFL, the shirt practically ROBED the fella. Everytime he eats, he waves his wand “Consumedious!” and *poof* the food disappears.

After A&W at Gurney Plaza, we all went to check in at Sri Sayang Apartments. Nothing much to say about the apartment we rented. The shower is a bit funky and likes to surprise people, the chairs were traps disguised as chairs and if there is a killer on the lose, there’s no alternative escape route unless you jumped form one balcony to one next door.

The best part was the view. We were on the 14th floor you see and I loved it. I spent a lot of time just spazing out there. There was this one night, where it was full moon and you can see moonlight reflecting off the sea. It was windy and so soothing.

Most of us played RISK during the afternoon. RISK I find is a complicated game full of strategy, kinda like CIV (Civillization IV) except you don’t develop cities, and it’s a war game. It was fun to watch but I didn’t play, mainly I wasn’t too interested and it was kidna fully booked already. Everyone was in pairs. Haha. Spire didn’t play and we instead spent the afternoon playing MTG, discussing MTG strats and deck builds.

Soon it was dinner time and we all headed out for a simple makan at this Indian place where they can mix almost anything at your request. Just point at anything and they scoop a ladle full of that and plop it onto your plate, pay at the counter then eat.

Next they brought me to this place which I have no idea what it’s called but I named it ‘Hawker’s Street’ cuz the whole jalan just paved with hawkers stands. I had some rojak and some other stuff I can’t name now cuz I totally fogot what they are called. I took pictures of them though.