.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

As you probably know by now it was my 30th birthday last Friday on the 21st March 2008. You can see my pressies here.

On Friday itself I thought I was just going to have a quiet dinner and hide away from the fact I am getting old..I thought something was up, but I wasn't sure what it was, where it was..or quite how many people were involved!

My mom let slip 'party' a couple of times, but I thought she was just talking generally..or being crazy haha.

I was led to Izzi Uptown and greeted by an overwhelming number of people (no I wasn't about to cry!). Apparently the original venue was Izzi KL, but due to the F1 parties most of the roads in KL were closed.

There was quite a number of people there when I arrived.

Lots of friends I haven't seen for quite a while.

And my bro with the same birthday Terence G.

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Ok so here we are, the full write-up! When I mentioned Dionne Warwick at the Shangri-La - Kuala Lumpur there wasn't much response, so sadly I can assume not many Malaysians know WHO Dionne Warwick is?

Well read this for a start: Dionne Warwick at Wiki

She's pretty much the second best female vocalist of all time after only Aretha Franklin and also note that out of the Billboard Hot 100 top pop singles from 1955-1999 she's #20 out of 200 artists.

Anyway, that aside - on to the event! We arrived about 7+ for the 'cocktail' reception - yeah with no cocktails only sirap ais or water. And this dinner is RM1000 per head, for the cheap seats! Apparently seats in the middle were about 3k per head and I hate to think how much the front row of tables cost.

So what else to do while waiting, pose a bit la!

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For 67 years old she sure does know how to rock the show. She can really work the crowd.

I was right at the back corner, so not a great view...and I didn't take a telephoto so no decent pics of her I'm afraid.

Here's one of me tho!

Yes I can look smart...ish.

Siti was there too with Datuk K. Here's Siti and some other hot chick.

I really enjoyed it, anyway just got back so will update properly later in the week.

Ah finally! A party I really enjoyed. So the story is, I was invited to a product launch by Heineken who are launching new "sub-zero" bottled beer in Malaysia, their sub-zero draft has already been installed in 30 locations through Malaysia since September this year and now they are launching new Sub-zero beer chillers for bottled beer.

I was a bit annoyed as it was 7pm on a Monday night in the middle of KL...during the season when it rains a lot during early evening - just great!

I got there about 7.45pm and queued for some draft, good stuff. It really does taste better when it's extra cold - we were upstairs for a while at the bar whilst waiting for the launch to kick of downstairs in Velvet Underground.

So we headed down, there was ice everywhere, huge green blocks of ice filled with bottles of Heineken - good stuff!

The place was fairly well packed.

Joey G was the emcee (as he always seems to be nowadays) and the thing kicked off with a video about how the beer is best served extra cold, then a delivery by the regional director for Heineken - sounded like an Aussie.

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Yah I'm typically late in posting this, due to changing PC and not processing the pictures all...and being a lazy bum etc etc.

Any way, a friend of ours invited us to the Autumn season launch party for Royal Selangor Pewter at their visitor center in Setapak.

So I thought why not, especially with the funky Turkish theme of the Autumn stuff, belly dancers and so on it should be interesting!

You can check out the Autumn Release here.

And well I have to say it rocked, it's one the best organised 'corporate' type parties I've been too with a seamless integration of the new ranges of pewter into the environment.

It was also sponsored by Bombay Sapphire, so plenty of booze! Nice funky disco house music too, beautifully lit, good food and nice atmosphere. It was a surprisingly enjoyable night out for a launch!

The food was great with kebabs, houmous and various Turkish type desserts.

And freshly sliced roast lamb with gravy....man that was good.

More from:

Suanie - royal selangor’s autumn ‘07 collection launch partayyy!!
Fireangel - The Royal Selangor Autumn Launch Party

You can view the full set on Flickr here:

Royal Selangor Pewter - Aug 2007

It's been a fair while since I went out and had a reasonable amount of alchohol, quite some time indeed.

I'm sure you remember my blog before my photography escapades was full of clubbing, greasy food, alcohol and hedonistic behaviour...aww perhaps I'm getting old?

I was invited for this party by some Smirnoff people, I just had to post something before the party to get things warmed up.

I managed to post something after the party too, just before passing out.

Anyway it was a pretty good party, there was a decent crowd.

Joey G was the MC - isn't he always nowdays? I seem to see him at every event I go to.

The finger food was pretty good - especially the sotong (yummy).

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During the weekend one of Kim's friends was around, and I'd had an idea for a photoshoot in my head for a while..so we headed off to a carpark to take some urban portraiture.

I used artificial lighting as the carpark was very dark, mostly an SB-800 with a reflective umbrella and a naked SB-600.

Before the shoot I had a good idea of the look I wanted to achieve by using a cross-processed style.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, let me know what you think and which picture is your favourite.

Also if you are interested in any portfolio shots or have any interesting ideas for a photoshoot let me know.

First Shot

Just Cool

Attitude

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So it was a holiday.

So I didn't get drunk this weekend.

So my liver was feeling too healthy.

So Paul and I decided WE SHOULD GO OUT.

We originally planned to go to Rum Jungle, as I've never been there before I wanted to check it out, but the 'contact' there was a fucking asshole, as we were 15 minutes late he claimed we cancelled the table.

So then it was basically FUCK RUM JUNGLE, FUCK THEM IN THEIR STUPID ASSES.

And off to Thai Club we went, upstairs, Thai Cowboy Cafe or whatever it's homo name is.

It was pretty good, with some decent music and quite a crowd, probably due to the holiday next day, many people had the same idea as us.

We got a free mini bottle of Chivas with our big one, so cute

I don't know who ended up with it, probably KY the sneaky bugger.

We had half a bottle of something else too..and cutest Suan evar?

There was of course hot chicks..

And handsome guys..

Following the fairly healthy amount of alchohol, we proceeded to the best after drinking supper place in the world, petaling street, for Siu Yuk Min and Low Shui Fan.

This is seriously best after drinking, salty, tasty, oily and rich.

The mouse tails were much better than last time too, tastier and better texture.

Really good, fun night out

If you want to go there, the street is actually parallel to Petaling Street, the one just before.

Head towards Petaling Street from Pudu, and take a left as soon as you pass the Nando's there, and head to the end of the street, pass one of the dudes a couple of bucks for 'watching' your car, and feast up.

Clubbers haven.

Actually I wanted to post about this topic for quite some time, since I was involved in Project Aware, but I never quite got prompted to do it.

Since all this bullshit about handicapped toilets has come about, I think it's time to address it.

I do wish people would care more, people would stand up for their rights, stand up for what they believe in, look after their planet and have some civic conciousness.

Most people just stumble through life, wasting resources, totally ignorant to the fact they are destroying the planet, and in some cases society too.

One example is littering, during Project Aware we were picking up litter on the beach, why because dumbfuckers threw it there, instead of in the bin. Why oh why? There are bins everywhere, if not carry it till you see one, or put it in your pocket or something, don't throw it on the floor.

I see some people throwing tissues out the car window or onto the floor, and they say..

"Oh but it's bio-degradable"

Yeah no shit, I know that, you know that, but does the 6 year old kid that just saw you drop something on the floor instead of the bin know that?

I don't think so.

Educate by example, lead by example, care about your environment and don't just talk about it, if you see someone litter, say politely...

"Excuse me, but there's a bin just over there"

Honestly some elderly lady said that to me once when I was a youngster in UK dropping litter, and it made a big impact on me, I never did it again.

That's just a small example, other things are using more organic products, using environmentally friendly washing powder, using environmentally friendly fridges, rated for lower power consumption, and lacking of harmful CFC's.

I guess a lot of it comes from my mother, who truly leads by example, she saves all organic waste from our house and makes her own compost to fertilise the garden.

She recycles wherever possible, I'm glad to see in Malaysia more recycling facilities are appearing, the first place I saw segregated bins were in Ikano Power Center, which shows civic conciousness.

In UK now the rubbish collection service provides different coloured bags for plastics, paper and others, to make the sorting easier for them, and to make recycling more possible for everyone.

Another example is caring for society, not just the environment, if the state isn't fixing something write to your MP.

If there is something wrong with the road, write to who is responsible for it.

If you got bad service in a resturant and were mis-treated, write to the management.

People might say we Brits are known for moaning, but I'd say we are standing up for our rights, that's why in UK we get top-notch customer service and product quality, because if we don't we kick up a shitstorm, unlike here, where people are rather lackadaisical and don't really seem to care.

"Whatever la, it's normal here"

Yeah but why should it be normal, can you not fight for better standards?

If something is wrong, I'll write a letter about it, if I get bad service, I'll fill in the comment card. The sad thing in Malaysia is that nothing happens. Like in UK if I'd filled in the terrible comments I did in the comment card in a Sushi place in the curve, I would have gotten a call next day and an invite back to the resturant for a free meal as maybe I just came at a bad time.

Word of mouth is powerful, that's a fact.

If you think something is wrong, fight for change, don't sit and accept it.

An example would be Kimberly, she is a civic minded citizen, I have seen her letters published in The Star regarding various matters from the state of roads in Cheras to the intermittent water supply in the area. She was a responsible citizen before this boycotting campaign and she will be after, I don't believe it's a personal vendetta against XiaXue, to be honest she didn't even mention XX. Those who say so in my mind are rather pathetic.

I personally support her, she is standing up for what she believes is right, more than I can say for most people who just go with the flow and nod their heads, then chastise when the tide changes.

Anyway the point I'm trying to make is people should start caring, they should stop gossiping about small things like XX, and how rude Peter Tan was and look at the bigger picture of WHY these people said what they said, what is WRONG about it, and HOW we can change it.

In all honestly these are small issues, there are many things that need to be corrected and we should focus our energies on those rather than endlessly pointing fingers at each other.

Make a difference, do something for someone ELSE for a change, for your future children, or the future generation.

So duly off I went to Port Dickon after a call out from TBG and pleading from FireAngel..

We headed up pretty early around 3pm to avoid the traffic and to get our tickets without having to wrestly for them like at Zoukfest last time.

The traffic was already horrible, and I took a long ass way following God's directions all the way through Puchong, then past CyberJaya finally reaching Port Dickson after about 135km..

The highway was bad, hardly moving, people were resorting to using the hard shoulder..

We got there early though and grabbed our tickets at a reasonable 40RM each (including 2 drinks and a free gift, which was actually functional for once).

we were starving after that so we headed to the Pasar Malan to feast on...burgers, lots of coconut juice, deep fried chicken bread, popiah goreng, fried chicken and other stuff which I don't even know the name of..

As we went in early, just after sunset we could park inside, in the best car park in the world ever...NOT.

I pity the people at the front, their cars had literally 2 inches of dust on when we left, mine was pretty bad and it was at the back.

I did a massive wheelspin on the way in just to create some haze and make the KL people feel at home *evil grin*.

We were greeted at the front by the Recharge Ferris Wheel.

They had a huge video screen next to the ferris wheel, I mean huge like 40ft high, each booth had a camera in it and the images showed on the screen, kinda cool, a lot of people didn't notice at first..but they they did, so there was people stripping..

And people pulling stupid faces..

It was pretty quiet when we went in, and technically it's not really a beach, it's just kind of sandy..

The music was good though.

There was a nice chill out area by the sea with loads of fans and comfy laid back chairs where you could relax and get a hand massage..I mean wtf, it's not my hands that are tired thanks honey.

Couldn't you think of something better to massage? I could suggest a few things..

The Melbourne Shufflers were back, there were 15+ of them I guess I'd say 2-3 were actually good.

BTW we were doing something like the shuffle in old skool raves back in 1994 before it even had a name, GO PRODIGY GO ALTERN8!

I was touting my trendy water bottle pouch thing that I got as a free gift, and wearing my kickass "I Punch People" T-shirt.

God, Saint and FA came around 11.30pm...a bit late..

By 12 the music turned shit and it was abso-fucking-lutely packed. Johan Gielsen or whoever the fuck he is was the poorest excuse for a DJ I've ever heard, he did like 3 minute build up (which wasn't even exciting or uplifting or actually even vaguely interesting) then the beat DIDN'T EVEN MATCH. GO BACK TO DJ SCHOOL LOSER.

Then he just played shitty repititive dull techno-ish german shit, not quite gabba but not interesting in any way either.

Before 12 it was rocking, after 12, when Gielsen took the decks, even though it was ram packed, virtually no-one was dancing, before 12 the whole place was rocking. Good one, you obviously have no clue how to work the crowd..

But it was freaking packed, I mean seriously packed, there was no more tarmac left to dance on and sand is pretty hard to dance on, you end up digging yourself into a hole.

People, people everywhere.

The second arena was a bit sloppy with their music...at one point they played some chart 'hip-hop' song, then they played Josh Wink - Higher State of Conciousness, then they played Nirvana, then they started playing some weird trip-hop, I like that music, but how the fuck do you dance to it.

Headed off about 2am, got bored, tired and was hungry..

Went straight back got to Misai around 3.15am, whacked a burger and some Indomee and was truly satisfied, then home for a well deserved sleep.

I think the others left shortly after..I wonder if FA even got to dance.

Yes, I went to R3velation and all I got was this lousy arm band..

Zoukfest at Genting was much better, better music too, I heard Scott Project rocked the house, but I'd had enough by then, he came on at 3am.. It's better to be cold than hot, at least at Genting if you kept dancing or had a jumper it was nice.

In PD if you just stood still there were so many people it got sweaty..

Oh well, worth a try

I got recognised twice too, which was kinda cool and odd...one guy from Penang who doesn't have a blog and a girl selling glowsticks who had her blog URL on the back of her t-shirt, I thought it was Tilla but it wasn't it was:

http://tilia.blogdrive.com/

She took a pic with me, perhaps it'll get to her blog, or she'll send it to me, who knows.

Anyway I'm obviously a minor celebrity...or something!

Gallery is here: Recharge 3: R3velation 2005 Port Dickson Pictures