My Euro 2008

I have always resisted blogging about football. Even though I am a big football (aka soccer in the US) fan, I also considered that most of our blog readers and friends probably don't give two hoots about this game anyway... haha.

But given the current Euro 2008 fever, it is hard to ignore it altogether. So, what do I do then? Well, jump in on the football bandwagon, of course. The biggest problem is, however, staying awake to watch the games live on TV. With matches starting at 12 midnight and 2.45 am, I will usually doze off even before the 1st game starts... haha. So, I will end up having to catch the replays on TV after work the following evening.

Like many football fans, I regularly follow the EPL (English Premier League) since I am an MU (Manchester United) fan. With England failing to qualify for Euro 2008, some EPL fans will turn to supporting the teams of their club's players while others, especially the girls, will simply go for looks. One of Eunice's girlfriends asked her, "You actually see how they play?" Err... guess the friend just watches the guys instead of the game then ;)

Despite Cristiano Ronaldo's record breaking, 42 goal heroics for MU (he is also the 2008 European Golden Shoe winner and PFA Player of the Year), I remain a neutral fan of the Euro 2008.

MU and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo (photo: creative commons / ayahabd)

However, I do have a few favorites - my semifinal predictions (after 2 rounds of group matches) are:

Portugal
vs
Croatia

Netherlands
vs
Spain

And my predictions for the final are:
Portugal
vs
Netherlands

And the winner of Euro 2008 is...
NETHERLANDS!


Haha... I will probably be wrong, but let's just see how far away my predictions turn out to be :)

Skyline Quest

Recently, we launched a website for our new company called Skyline Quest. We had both been very busy and had to delay the website several times. But we are glad that we finally got to finish and upload it online.

So, what is Skyline Quest all about? No, it has nothing to do with Nissan Skyline, but rather, it is a registered business that takes advantage of both our backgrounds in IT and music technology. Skyline Quest is an ICT solutions provider that specializes in business productivity applications, multimedia hardware and software products, music technology tools as well as various types of web-based services.

And if all that sounds too technical (haha), in other words, it simply means that Skyline Quest is a company that supplies a wide range of products and services – computer hardware, software, audio equipment and web services, all at competitive prices.

Our aim is to provide our customers with the lowest prices without making losses. Thus it becomes a win-win situation. So, if you are looking for any IT products and services or audio production and musical equipment, primarily in Malaysia, then please feel free to contact us.

For more information, please go to:
www.skylinequest.com

Meeting My Ex-Student

Robin was my ex-student at ICOM from about 10 years ago. He continued his studies after that at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA and is now a music producer, engineer and drummer based in New York city.

I was fortunate enough to learn of his holiday trip back to Malaysia this month and I "took advantage" of him (haha)... I asked if he could do a seminar for my Digital Audio class and Robin, just like the cooperative and exemplary student during his ICOM days, obliged (despite his very tight schedule in KL) by coming in to share his knowledge and experience in recording a live jazz trio.

Just before he left for NYC, Robin managed to squeeze in a little time to meet up with me and Eunice over dinner last Saturday. We met in Thai Express at The Curve. It was an interesting catching up session and exchange of stories, including how Eunice and I met. Although that story is also available on the About Us page of zenetlife.com, Robin had a 1st person account from us on how it happened, with quite a few more details, of course (than the summarized version on our website)... haha.

Another ex-ICOM student, Cecilia, later joined us at Thai Express. I have not seen her since her graduation ceremony about 5 years ago, and we caught up with each other too.

* From left to right: Cecilia, Robin, Eunice and Sze.

Towards the end, the air in Thai Express was getting hot and stuffy and it was time to go. But it had been quite an enjoyable evening for all 4 of us.

* Photo courtesy of Robin.

My Parkville Townhouse

Dad had frequently advised me to buy a house for investment since I have always had a place to stay in. In fact, Dad was more like pestering me about it... hehe.

I had been thinking about heeding Dad's advice but houses in KL were just too expensive and beyond my financial capability. So I asked Mom to look out for a cheaper piece of property back in Sitiawan (where Dad and her were staying). After a long wait, Mom found a single-storey house for RM98K. However, Dad wasn't too keen on that house as the value of property there does not increase as much as in KL/Klang Valley. So, I started hunting for a place here in KL after Dad indicated that he would help me out financially.

I looked at several places and found Desa Coalfields in Sg. Buloh. As it (Sg. Buloh) is a rapidly developing town, it seemed to be the new boom area. Rental rates and house prices there would surely go up then. A new, double-storey terrace house in Desa Coalfields would cost around RM238K now - other similar houses that I have seen elsewhere are in excess of RM300K. But when I asked several friends and colleagues for their opinions, many were not keen on that area as it was further away from the city.

Based on that feedback, I started looking for houses nearer to where I live here in Puchong. A friend of mine took me to see a new house nearby which she bought recently, and along the way, I spotted an interesting block of showhouses - they were the Parkville Townhouses in Bandar Bukit Puchong. It had already closed for the day, so I went back there the next morning with Sze.


Being a townhouse (duplex), there was the lower unit and the upper unit. Many house buyers might like the lower unit but when I saw the upper unit, I fell in love with it immediately... hehe. The interior was beautifully designed and was very spacious. At 1560 sq. ft. (24x60 ft.), it was priced at RM239K, which was about what I would have expected to spend.

I went back to see the Parkville showhouses with my younger sis later that same day and she loved it too. We compared it with a few other places after that but none could measure up and impress us. So 2 days later, little sis and me booked 2 upper units of the Parkville townhouses :) We paid an extra RM8K each as we wanted the end (corner) units.

Election Day

8 March 2008 marked the date of the 12th Malaysian General Election. Soon after the Prime Minister dissolved Parliament on 13 February 2008, we could see flags and banners of various political parties appearing all over the city.

Campaigning fever then gripped the nation after the nomination of candidates on 24 February 2008. The political candidates in our area are:

PUCHONG (Parliament) -
Lau Yeng Peng (BN-Gerakan, incumbent) vs Gobind Singh Deo (DAP)

SERI SERDANG (State) -
Datuk Mohd. Satim Diman (BN-UMNO, incumbent) vs Ahmad Idzam Ahmad (PAS)

Come election day, we arrived at our polling center at about 9.15am. There were many cars parked by the roadside and 3 political party booths set up nearby - 1 for BN, 1 for DAP and 1 for PAS.
Strangely enough, the DAP booth was closed (on election day!!!) while the other 2 booths were busy trying to woo the voters.

We had previously printed out our voting info (from the Election Commission’s website) but a BN party worker requested us to re-check our info at their booth as there could be mistakes. Our printed info turned out to be accurate while the voter info distributed by BN earlier contained a mistake!

After that, we proceeded into the school compound where we passed by yet another booth – this time, the Election Commission’s booth. We didn’t stop as we already knew our polling streams. An election worker gave us directions, and we went towards our voting rooms.

I was in Stream 7 while Sze was in Stream 4. I didn’t know where I was, and when I asked a policeman, he said that I was standing right in front of the Stream 7 room… oops! Everywhere else, there were many people lining up to vote… except me - I just walked into the room, got my polling slips and casted my vote. I think I was the fastest voter! Sze had a longer queue but he was soon done with his voting too.

While waiting for my parents-in-law, we saw a “gentleman” arguing loudly with an election officer and a policeman, who threatened to arrest him and subsequently pulled him out of the building. Apparently, the man had wanted to change stream to one with a shorter queue. The police later released him and peace was restored. We left the polling station after an hour.

And oh, the winning candidates in our area are:
PUCHONG (Parliament) - Gobind Singh Deo (DAP), won by a majority of 12,593.
SERI SERDANG (State) - Datuk Mohd. Satim Diman (BN-UMNO), won by a majority of 45 only!

Hat Yai Trip

During the recent Chinese New Year (CNY) holidays, several of my family members organized a trip to Hat Yai for the whole family (err… actually, it was me who asked Mom to plan for the trip). As we had planned to leave for Hat Yai from Sitiawan on the 2nd day of CNY, Sze and I left KL for Sitiawan after lunch on the 1st day of CNY itself. Although it is a tradition for the Chinese to visit the wife’s family on only the 2nd day of the new year, people are more flexible and practical in this 21st century.

After dinner and a night’s stay in Sitiawan, we left for Hai Yai at 6.30am. There were 10 of us and we went in 3 cars. Upon reaching the border checkpoint, the Thai immigration counters were already pretty crowded. There were long queues but fortunately, some of the lines were moving along quite fast.

We finally arrived in Hat Yai at about 12 noon local time. It was Sze’s first time here and his first impression of the city was that Hat Yai, being less developed yet feeling somewhat familiar, resembled KL 2 decades back.

Hat Yai city.

We checked-in to the Siam Center Hotel and had lunch in a coffee shop at the corner of the same hotel block.

The Siam Center Hotel.

The coffeeshop around the corner.

After a quick meal, Dad and (my sis) Fiona’s boyfriend went for a golf appointment with a few Thai friends while the rest of us headed to our 1st shopping destination – the Old Market.

On the way to the Old Market in a tuk-tuk.

It was very hot and stuffy in there but then again, shopping is a girl’s favorite pastime! So, all the 5 ladies in the group were buying things like nobody’s business while the 3 guys just tagged along for sight seeing. I bought 2 pairs of shoes soon after we arrived and helped Fiona with her shoe shopping after that.

Shoe shopping inside the Old Market.

That night, we had dinner with Fiona’s new Thai business partner. After that, we went for a walk, wondering where to shop again. On our way to the shopping malls, we saw some lion and dragon dances on the street. Sze had never seen lion dances on poles before and we were both very impressed as the performers jumped very high and very far too. During our short time there, the lion fell off the poles at least 3-4 times while attempting those very difficult jumps and it would then restart its jump sequence all over again!

Lion dance video.

Following the lion dance, the same troupe performed a dragon dance. That was also quite interesting, with the dragon climbing up a very tall pole, a little boy on another equally high “rocking” pole that falls to the ground and fireworks from the dragon’s mouth.

Dragon dance video.

After the performances, we walked along a night market on a very busy street where Naomi and I got ourselves a couple of wire keychains. Mine had the letter “Z” attached to a wire butterfly while Naomi’s 2 keychains had her boyfriend’s and her name written on them. We went back to our hotel after that.

Keychain with the letter "Z".

The keychain lady.

The next morning, we had a buffet breakfast at the hotel. The buffet spread was quite limited in choice but we still ate heartily. Right after our meal, we went to the Odean shopping mall. We bought quite a number of sundry goods as they were a lot cheaper there compared to Malaysia (tip for the ladies: Whisper sanitary pads were much cheaper in Hat Yai than in KL).

After leaving all our shopping bags back in our hotel rooms, we went for lunch. Both my sisters and Mom were skipping lunch and had already gone to the Central department store for more shopping. The rest of us proceeded to a nearby restaurant just opposite Central.

The South Thai Bird's Nest restaurant.

The entrance to Central department store.

After our meal, we joined the 3 ladies at Central and I managed to grab myself a good pair of Levi’s jeans. Later on, Sze and I continued to walk around the city on our own. That’s when we came across Boots! So far, I’ve only seen Boots stores in Thailand, apart from England.

That evening, we had dinner at a local Thai restaurant. This place had previously been patronized by the royal princess but it still remained as humble as ever. However, they serve very authentic Thai food where some of the dishes were quite spicy while some others were sweet… There was only 1 word to describe the food – DELICIOUS!

The humble restaurant serving authentic Thai food.

After dinner, we took a walk downtown and saw the lion and dragon dances again. They continued to impress us and I decided to give them an ang pow this time as they were very deserving performers. We went back to the hotel after that.

At 6am the following morning, we checked out and went for a very early breakfast. However, the hotel’s breakfast trays were not ready yet. After waiting for about 15 minutes with no air-conditioning in the building (since the middle of last night), we had a quick breakfast and left for Malaysia immediately after that to beat the expected “back to KL” traffic rush.

Bon voyage sign at the Thai immigration checkpoint.

We had enjoyed visiting Hat Yai and look forward to having more trips in the next few months. More pictures from our Hat Yai trip can be viewed in the Photo Gallery.

Using Aztech Wireless Router with a Separate Modem

Scenario:

The Aztech WL830RT4 wireless router could not connect to the internet via the ADSL modem (separate device). The modem works fine on its own when using wired internet access but could not dial out to connect to the internet when the router is plugged into the modem.

I tried changing several settings but none worked. I also tried to look for an answer online - although there were several discussions on the problematic Aztech wireless router, surprisingly, none of the forums had any solutions.

So at 8.30am Monday morning, I called the Aztech Service Hotline. The support guy suggested that I set my LAN IP to 10.0.0.2... and voila, it worked! Thanks and a good job to the Aztech Service Center! (The router's default 192.168.1.1 LAN IP was already in use by the modem and thus became the default gateway IP of the WAN.)

Conclusion: Set the Aztech wireless router's LAN IP to 10.0.0.2 (also check that its WAN IP is set to dynamic, which is the default setting).