Back from Cambo, and safely

Just dropping a short note to say I'm back from Cambodia. No time to blog now, inundated with work, but if you click on my Flickr you can see some pics we took there.

Promise I'll be uploading more pictures and put a full post up soon!

Arrived here in Cambodia... safely!

Hello from Cambodia!


This is my first ever international posting. Lydia and myself are now in a Cambodian cafe, hunched over a semi- current machine (it's got an LCD screen!) setting my away from office message and taking advantage of this time to post a quick blog.

We arrived in Phnom Penh safely at about 5:00 p.m. (Malaysian time) yesterday and promptly took a car taxi to our hotel. There are many variations of taxis here from a motorcycle taxi (US$ 2) to a car taxi we're pretty familiar with (US$ 7). The cabby was chatty and offered to take us around the city before we head for the hotel. On hindsight, he could have wanted more money for that.

So, without much fuss, we check into our hotel. Shame I don't have my cable with me, otherwise I could post a couple of pictures on how it looks. First impression? Disappointment. Lydia turned to me and asked me "how come you chose such a cheap hotel?"

Okay, it isn't exactly a cheap hotel (US$22 per night). But we started checking into a room with no pillows! It took me three trips up and down to the lobby, before pillows were finally delivered. Ah, but with the pillows, it started to look better. Lydia said: "Not so bad after all."

We walked out for a bit in the evening to this nearby shopping complex (supposed to be the best in Phnom Penh.) The name was Suria, so we imagined KLCC. The dome from afar made our imagination trickle even further. But when we reached there... it was... Kota Raya! The ground floor was 50% jewellery sellers, with the other half divided between food, an icecream shop and some clothiers. Upstairs, you had rows and rows of clothing shops.

We had dinner at an el cheapo beef noodle shop. And at a more expensive beef noodles shop this afternoon for lunch.

I'm runninng out of time for this post. We spent a lot of time walking around the Central Market and National Museum this morning. One thing I realise - they have a lot of gods in Cambodia. I think 80% of the stuff they display in the National Museum are statues of gods! From Shiva, to Ganesa, to Garuda and Vishnu.

Tomorrow, we're off to Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) and a better hotel (hopefully) on a 7 hour bus. Hopefully, we'll get there safely in one piece. Cheers!

True Malaysian Hero

Okay, so I'm three days late. But it's never too late to honor a true Malaysian hero.

To the left is the late Mr. Tan Chee Wai, a 31 year old man who was stabbed to death whilst preventing thieves from stealing a car in Kajang, 7am on Saturday morning.

Read the full story here and take a moment of silence.

SF5 Here now!

Song Festival is just around the corner.

For those who aren't clued in, this is the single biggest happening must-go-to event of the year! If you love music, you should already know about this. If you haven't, shame on you.

Okay, I'm exaggerating. Song Fest 5 is the fifth iteration of our annual singing competition at Petra Youth Productions, to be held this 25th August 2007. If you're free on that day (in the afternoon) do come along.

Here's the first ad:

About being married...

I waited for Louis to finally post up some pictures from our wedding onto his blog to post this up. So... been married for eight days now, and everytime someone asks me about it, I can only say it's great.

Married life isn't about fear and trepidation about the fact you're committed to just one other human being for the rest of your life. It's about joy of belonging to someone.

I've been with Lydia for six years (that's an awful long time, I know) and you know what, it's a changed feeling now. I used to feel very sad everytime the clock strikes eleven and either she has to go home, or I have to go home. You know...like a detached emptiness.

Now, I'm so happy I get the chance to tuck her into bed (she sleeps earlier than me) and pat her hair back so it doesn't land on her face. Married life is sweet. You don't have to say, "Goodbye, goodnight."

So as I'm reflecting on what's changed, I realise, these are the first few steps towards creating a home. A place where we both belong, uniquely. We got the keys to our house just last weekened, and though it's really bare now (and dusty!), we both can't wait to clean up the place, renovate it lightly, and just move in.

This is so exciting.

Well Done, Carribbean Roast

Hey Group James members,

Thank you and well done for Petra Can Wok. We certainly showed that we've all got an alternative career running a Carribbean themed restaurant / cafe should any of us be out of a job. Most importantly, the teamwork and effort was fantastic.

From the surfboard menu, to the perfectly-halved Avocado, to the Pina Colada, shaken, not stirred.

As you could imagine, I was running around like a half-crazy rooster trying to get pictures and videos. Click on to http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidlian for some photos of the day. I'll update this post with videos once I get the chance.

Congrats all!

New banner

Okay, when I started doing this blog, I was quite geared to making it Technology focused. After a bit, I think I kinda detracted, and it's become one of those whiny-bloggy spaces where people whine about their lives.

But I digress. Tech is still a big part of who I am, and interesting stuff still pop up all over the internet. In fact, I'm revamping my blog a bit to put in even more widgets etc. :) Just wait.

If Optimus Prime was insured...

Okay, so a quick double-post. Ernest, Jason, Yuke Bin and the rest of us have gone Transformers-crazy these past two weeks after watching the movie. All of us have the theme song playing as our ring-tone and the "transform" sound as our SMS alert.

Ernest is mulling over whether to plonk RM 39.90 for the entire Season 1 of Transformers: Generation 1 on DVD.

I'm wishing my Nokia N73 could transform just like the Nokia N93i does in the movie.

Guys, a little to share from eBolasaurus' blog. Click on the link below. This has got to take the cake.

Insurance agent's letter to Optimus Prime

Love Simpsons, pictures? Check this out.

I know everyone's waiting for a marriage related post, but I'm sorry to disappoint, that will have to wait a while.

On a totally un-related note, I'd like to share two links I recently discovered to stuff I absolutely love:

1. Simpsons Avatar-maker thingamajig

This is absolutely cool. Ever imagined yourself as a Simpsons character? I have. Below is probably how I would look if I ever guest-starred in an episode of The Simpsons.
2. Nokia's World24h

Nokia's come up with this pretty cool mash-up where you could basically view a world map and see pictures taken from countries all over the world. Just move your mouse cursor over the country, and click!

I've already gotten onto Flickr! and love it, this bit of mash-up takes things one step further. Basically, it's a mash-up that takes files that are Geo-tagged from Flickr and puts it into this cool, flash-based, map interface.

Geo-tagging is when you take a picture and the file information records the location where you took the picture. This information can be as detailed as "Bangsar"or as broad as "Malaysia". Once you take advantage of this bit of information that's attached to all your photo files, you could easily programme a nifty piece of code (like this) that could pull files and arrange them into country, simply by looking at the tags.

Ooo boy, I just love exploring.

I'll probably post something about married life later today, or tomorrow. Don't hold your breath.

36 more hours...

Only 36 hours to go... no turning back, no turning back! Three more pics to share:

The Stairwell rant

7.7.7 is my wedding, but it's also a Green Green day for Philips. In case you haven't heard, you can bring in two used tungsten light bulbs and bring it to Menara Axis (near Asia Jaya Putra LRT station) to swap for two brand new Philips Energy saving ones.

Which brings me to the point of this post. At a recent media event we organised to help raise some awareness that the world is getting hotter (did you feel it too?) and that this was tied to the amount of electricity you were using, Dr. Rajah Kumar from Philips mentioned he was helping save electricity by using the stairs instead of the elevator. Wow! I was inspired.

So, I've taken to the habit of walking up to my office (4 floors up) instead of taking the elevator. Save the world and lose a few pounds of flubber -what's there not to like? Well, it isn't such a rosy idea in Malaysia, I guess. Because the stairwell at my office happens to be the favourite hangout joint for the Midvalley smokers' club.

Darn it, people! Don't you get it? You can't smoke inside buildings...full stop. The tenancy agreement forbids you to smoke in stairwells too! Oh, and, building management, how are we supposed to use the stairwells to get up to our offices without choking to death in smog?

The problem isn't just in Midvalley. Back in Mont'Kiara there was this problem too and of course, in various other offices I've visited. Which then leads me to wonder, wasn't there some very stern legislation passed about smoking in public places? Where's the enforcement?

"Our" Night out

Both Lydia and I had our "night out" last Friday at this place in the middle of town called "Passion" with our best, best church friends.

Before I go further, I just want to thank everyone who showed up for taking the time and effort to make it. I know we had to sit through a long and irritating jam all the way to Jalan P.Ramlee, but it was worth it.

So, back to the story. We were supposed to meet there at 9:00 p.m., then later 9:30 p.m., but by the time most of us arrived, it was 10:00 p.m. Randy called me at about 9:30 p.m. asking me where everyone was - he was the first and most punctual guy waiting in front of the place like a... (insert own expressive). That's a good thing, Randy Khoo!

Anyway, to cut the long story short - pictures paint a thousand words so here's one of the crowd who were there (spot any familiar faces):


The guys pinned me down and made me tell old girlfriend stories, and dared me to get some girl in the bar to dance. Okay, so I admit, this was my first time approaching two Malay girls to get on the dance floor with me. The worst part - I totally don't know how to dance.

I guess everyone gets this once in their lifestime, so after some 30 minutes of meandering, I actually got off my bottom and asked. And one of them accepted. I don't have any pictures of that dance, but someone has, I'm sure (can someone send it to me?).

Anyway, other highlights of the night was:

5. Yuke Bin demonstrating that the lame can dance! Despite his heavily bandaged leg, our friend was nicely snaking his way across the dancefloor.

4. Kee Leong, hands up high and shaking and waving like tomorrow is never gonna come.

3. Yvonne! Never knew you were so strong. It took four women to hold you down.

2. Co-ed bathrooms. There's a freaky feeling when you see girls preening outside and taking photos of themselves just before you get into the cubicle to peel.

1. Everyone attended! This was a very meaningful night, not just coz we're gonna get married, but because you all came.

I have a more images loaded up on my Flickr photostream. Click on them to the right if you wanna browse through.