Get well soon, my friend

"He's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar
The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star
He's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do
Drew walks by me, can he tell that I can't breathe?
And there he goes, so perfectly,The kind of flawless I wish I could be
She'd better hold him tight, give him all her love
Look in those beautiful eyes and know she's lucky cause..."

- Taylor Swift's Teardrops on my guitar

One question that cross my mind whenever i have the chance to visit a theme park, is how does this people making money out of something which scares people, and make them piss in the pants. Like "free fall" and roller coaster. To be honest, i will never spend that kind of money and you don't have to figure why.

Same goes to relationship. Even if it is scary and so unpredicatable, people still want to be part of the ride.

I have a close friend recently, who has another heartbreaking moment with her other half.

Again.

Her story, given a chance to be nominated in the Cannes film festival, i am going to bet to my very last piece of underwear i had for her to win the "Most twisted and turned" category, which is normally conquered by an Hindi movie.

As far as i would not understand the storyline of "The Matrix", this is totally at a much higher level. But her story taught me something which i would have already known for ages.

Every now and then, people come and ask me, "do you know what love means?"

Well, make no mistake, I am not a so called "Doctor Love". I don't really have a clue of what love really means. But i can tell you how it is like.

If you disagree with me is ok. People entitled to their own opinion anyway.

When you are in love with someone;

1. Even if you are doing your "business" in the toilet, you will think about him. (Admit it you do).

2. Waiting in line for McDonalds drives you nuts. But you will never have enough waiting for his sms. (Although there're always a time frame)

3. You tend to ask yourself, can we stay like this forever?

But bear in mind, not every love story ended with this.

It can be this...

Can be this...




or maybe even this...




The thing is, when times flies, the feeling fades away, arguments arises, you felt the other way around. You lose sleep, you lose appetite, you tend to hide away from people with only one hope:

It can cure your broken heart.

This is the part where you will find yourself asking the "If" and "why" question. But ironically, you can score an A+ in your Calculus exam, but not having a clue on a simple question as above.

To me, one thing is for sure. As soon as the love can come, it will leave as soon also.

Same goes to heartbreak. I always tell the very same thing. "Time will heal".

Lets not forget this:

"The pair of hands that wave goodbye to each other now, is exactly the very same pair hand that held you guys together once upon a time".

Pathetic eh?

To my friend, hope you will recover soon. We will always be there for you. Don't be afraid, because you'll never walk alone.

2

This song bring so much memories back into my mind during my stay at one of the boarding school.

The fact is, we have so made so many friends from different culture background, including the malays.

Ironically, i started to listen to their songs, one of my favourites is the band called KRU.

There were arguably one of the best band around in Malaysia.

Enjoy the song. "2", by KRU.

Simply a bad luck...

Taking a glance at my workstation, it looks as if it was hit and overrun by a bullet train.


Drawings and papers ranging from A4 to A1 size is everywhere, and yet here i am, wondering when and what is my intention of leaving it there.


Old people tend to believe in "feng shui", a traditional belief in chinese community that something like turning your toilet bowl upside down or putting a colourful flowers in certain corner of your house can bring you luck and prosperity, and even can led you to a charming ladies in fact.


I guess it is because of the severity of "damage" and "mess" of my workplace is leading me to a curse to me in my career - Indian client, from India to be specific.


It is not that i am racist. (Honest). But some of them are really a pain in the ar*e if you happened to deal with them.


I can't even lead a proper life ever since i started to deal with most of them. Make no mistake, some of them are real great persons. But the rest, this can happened to you if you try to outsmart (or more specific: Outalking) them during discussions.






Even my colleague has gave me a new nickname = The Indian Killer.

And i guess, after 2 long years, i still failed to live up to the expectation as i can't shake my head like them yet.

Back to the topic again.

Eh where am i already? Oh ya, my messy workplace that brings me bad luck.

Maybe i should consider or think of a way to "cure" my bad luck.

By marrying Indian woman.

From India.

Btw, this is not a racist post. Just a general review and appreciation of the impact of the Indian culture towards a chinese engineer.

Russel Peter (Comedian) once said, "chinese and indian cannnot do business together. Because Indian will try to get every penny out of you, and the chinese will try to keep each and every penny to their ownself".

We are all cheap.

Not a kid, not yet an adult..

"Remember to call grandpa when you have time, and let us know when you are free to come home for holiday."

"Ok, i will". Beep. The tone marks an end of the conversation between a son & his father, separated thousands of miles away.

It has been a while to be away from home.

Well, i have been pretty much a KL-boy now.

After 10 long years residing in this city, i have turn from a carefree student who terrorized the lecturers with my"self-create-formula-of-problem-solving",to a white blue collar who terrorized the boss with your "Moderately-high-entertainment-claims-and-expenses" .

I guess it is a norm in life. Almost each and everyone of us when we are still a student, we dreamed of employment by a big company earning big bucks.

But as soon as we started working, we tend to missed those time in colleges and universities.
The late night "yam-cha" session, skipping the lectures, flirting with those cutie-pies from your lecture class, and occasionally, moments of upmost stupidity of all times.

Fast forward to today, i was so busy attending my work schedule to a point where i almost come to forget about one thing - My life & my family.

My grandpa has suffered from cancer recently. It has been quite awhile since i last met the old man. I still remembered when the very last time he saw me he asked "Do you realize how long i did not get to see you, my grandson?". I tried to recall but found no answers. Then he reminded me. "Two years, two long years". Could it be that long? Maybe, yes.

I still remember the joyful smile on his and grandma's face when i handed them some pocket money before i left.

I know it is not about the money. It is the thought that matters. I knew they felt touched seeing their grandson has grown up finally as an adult. I guess that is the one and only dream that matters to them. Although secretly, i knew there is another one, which is seeing myself getting married to a woman i loved and start my own family.

Same goes to my parents. They have got used to the life without the eldest son by their side since i was 12 years old. Luckily enough, i still have a sister and two younger brother who stayed with them back at home. I can't imagine to leave them behind to their own loneliness.

To all of you, when is the last time you have sit down and have a nice chat with your family?

I guess, it is time to fly home again, and enjoy mummy's home cooked soup, and daddy's home made crabs again.

My future became a debate?

Unpack my bags, showered, changed, sit down, turn on the tv, another day has gone.

It has become a routine almost everyday.

Being an unmarried man, i have pretty much a lot of times and spaces for myself. But when i am home and staring at all those walls around me, loneliness will try to creep its way into me.

I am very much a homely person, even more so after i have move into my new home, my own comfy zone. No crying babies to attend to, no diapers awaiting for me to change, no home cooking stuff to be worried of.

Looking at one of my friend's wedding card and photos, i realized that among my close buddy, only me and another one left unmarried to date. Marital status: Single.

The other day when i was having lunch with a buddy of mine, it seems like every friends who attended Tony's wedding is debating on whether me or the other guy would get married first.

Suddenly it became more of an issue to be debate on. If you ask them about the dividing opinion on American troop's presence in Agfanistan land, i bet it would fall on deaf ears.

My future seems like more interesting for this bunch of guys.

Well, interesting. Lets see how it goes.

El.Nino My Story

This guys is my idol.


Recently managed to get it at a very reasonable price, as it was released long ago. The price drop and i immediately grab it from Popular's store bookshelf in Sunway Pyramid.

When i play, i try to intimidate him.

Both of us have the same attribute, we played in the same positions. we have got pace, we are fast and we love to get behind the defenders.

And we love the feeling of adrenaline rush by scoring goals.

But of course, i am not as good as him. But i did model my style towards him.

But having a role model and learn from them can only make you improve.

Ok, i am gonna read this before i sleep.

Night.

MCFA Tournament 2010

Football is my obsession. It is my religion.

I am not talented enough to become one of those millionaires earning living out of it. But i can be proud enough to say at least i managed to got into the state chinese team.

It is not a big deal anyway. But somehow, whenever i pull on the shirt there will always be a feeling of pride in it.

This year, with Selangor Chinese team, we have arguably the best team of all time who has been playing with each other for quite sometimes.

Although this year we again failed to qualify for semifinals, but deep inside we all knew we have tried our best.

The team photos:




The coach and the team before the match:



and arguably the best snapshot of alltime. (Extracted from The Star dated 14th Sept 2010)

Try again next year. Hopefully it will turn out a good one.

End of the journey

I am lucky enough this time to get a helicopter waiting for my departure.
So lucky that I am the only one passenger leaving on this chopper.

Definitely felt like a VIP.



This is the first time in my life riding a chopper. Life Jacket have to be wear before hand, safety briefing have to be carried out, a headphone is a must and stuff like that.

As posted before, knowing the fact that I have undergone the helicopter crash survival training couple of months ok, I think I should be ok. One part of me feel excited, another part of me keep on flipping through the safety manual and instruction again and again.

Not forgetting reading the instruction on how to open up the emergency exit (yes, it is different from airplane) if something unlikely happened.

Looking down from the window, as the chopper was rising from the helipad, I knew this time I am really coming home. I already planned to shop at the Ben Than Market in ho Chi Minh (Night market), and even listed down the numbers of souvenirs to be brought home.

Upon reaching Vung tau, since the next boat going to Ho Chi Minh will only be on the next day, I decided to stay a night first in Vung Tau.



What a good decision it was. While I have more time to google for the best deals and locations for hotels in Ho Chi Minh city, I also have times to visit the “Vitamin C” Bars and Restaurant.

Definitely one of the healthiest bar in town.

I swear to god, this is the place if you want to check out super hot + cute + sexy chick, the type of Vietnamese girl who either looked as if they are all come with mix-parentage.
Some looked like Korean, some looked like Japanese.

Stop asking me how much it cost to “get to know them”, I really don’t know. :P

I will be home soon.:)

Friends @ Sea

“Friends are not the one who stay with you forever. They left a footprint in your heart when they leave”.

For the whole 9 days in the middle of the ocean, i managed to cure my boredom and homesickness by having new friends on board. During off-time, we teased each other when someone have to extend their stay on board.

We shared the same room together, eat together, watch movies together and having endless banters with each other.

You get to listened to all kind of stories from these guys.

How a guy has his newly changed engine Honda Accord crashed by his sister, who apparently could not control the amount of horsepower generated by the new engine during Hari Raya.

A guy who get to know his fiancée cheated on him only after he proposed marriage to her.

Another guy who has this favourite collection of 300++ football club jerseys (To date) from all over the world and his target is 1000 jerseys! And it is all originals!

A guy who love to charm all the Malaysian Air Stewardess to bed from different airlines just by a simple line. “Can I have a bottle of mineral water please?”

(I don’t know how true it was, but I think “hey girl, I have lost my number. Can I have yours?” will be more effective)

At the end of the day, when I was about to leave, some of them just keep on telling me.

“Hey, balik sekali la dengan kitaorang. Tak syok la macam nie, you dah takde..”
Hey. It was touching.

But anyway guy, by any means, thank you for your guys hospitality when I am on board. I appreciate it really. Whether we will meet again anytime soon, I wish you guys only all the best in your life.

I have got to go. See you when I see you again!

Life @ Sea

Life offshore is so different compared to when I am on land. With no internet facilities, we have only one free public phone line for us to call our families. Which, as you would have imagined, you have to wait for your turn. Laundry and foods is available, unlimited, and FOC.

And I can tell you, the food is really good. Nicer than I would have thought.


Anyway, before I left office, I have set my office mail in “away mode”. Away on the 3rd September 2010, back on- unknown. And a “Thank you for your email. I will reply when I have access to internetworking”. And “ Please cc your email to my hotmail address”. (Yeah right, as if I would read it) .

This is the typical type of most-eligible independent guy you would never imagine that would cried under this circumstances. I don’t want to hide, but yes, I do feel like crying when the lights goes off at night. (I am only a first-timer)

Looking at the sea in the middle of the night with a cup of coffee of tea in my hand has became a routine for me basically. Or sometimes when a nice movie was on the theater, I would watch it. But 40% of the time, it is pornographic films.

Some stupid x-rated movie, where you would see one guy and one girl walking on the streets hand in hand, then swoosh…suddenly they are making out on the bed.

The problem is, they never turn down the volume in the theater anyway. Anyway, my teacher used to tell me “If you can’t beat the best, join them and be one of them”. So I would just join in. :P

Hindi movie was not bad either. I enjoy to laugh at their accent. Vietnamese movie, I don’t understand, and I would say, no matter how I hate Malaysian movie, now I started to hate Vietnamese movie.

If only I could be acting in one of those movies, I would be a movie star in Vietnam.

But only now I know, Stephen Chow movies is their favourite of all time.

Time to sleep.

Goodnight.

Journey to the center of the sea..

Immediately after arriving in Vung Tau, I was called in straight for meeting at the Petro Vietnam office, which is a 5- minutes walk away. Not knowing it was so near, I accidentally took a cab, which make a straight, then left turn, shit…I arrived. (What a moron)

After briefing the MISC General Manager on the action plan on board the FPSO vessel, now is the time for waiting. Due to some problems, instead of a helicopter, I will have to take a supply boat to the middle of the South China Sea, which will take me a bloody 17 hours (Yes, 17) journey to the FPSO tanker.


It was a smooth ride. Along the way, you saw the oil drilling platforms, fish boats, supply boats, and endless view of the ocean horizon.

The problem is, instead of sea-sickness, I started to suffer from home-sickness. I don’t even felt it when I left home to study when I was a 12-years old kiddo.

Suddenly I am asking myself what am I doing here? With no telephone signals and internet connection, no one knows even if I am dead or alive, been eaten by sharks or kidnapped by the pirates of the Carribbean.


To pass the boring time, I did my favourite stunt – sleep first, homesick later.
Closing my eyes, my friends and families, my comfy home in Puchong all came into my mind.
Then I tell myself “Hung Yew, welcome to the world of uncertainty”.

Goodbye Malaysia, Hello Vietnam

I remembered a friend used to tell me this. “You are not supposed to fall in love with the same person twice”.

I did not took his advice obviously. I used to fall for her at the very first sight two years ago. Fast forward two years later, here I am – it happens again.

Ho Chi Minh, you are such a wonderful city.



Make no mistake, I did not fell in love with this city because of how it looks like. Old buildings, chaotic traffics, language barrier, tips-beggar, all sort of stuffs that would have prevented you from shortlisting it as one of your holiday destinations.

But I did fell for the character though.

Because of its “true colour”.


Like a girl, sometimes it is not only about looks which is important. (I will blog about it next time, not here please).



A Fann-Wong look alike Vietnamese girl.

Ok back to the reason why I am here. My company has sent me for a business trip overseas this time. The difference is, I am not going to stay in the city throughout the trip. To be more accurate, my final destination will be in the middle of South China Sea, on board on a ship. (Or to the offshore engineers, we called it as the FPSO).

To the outsiders, basically it is a oil tanker ship parked in the middle of ocean to collect the oils from the platform, and process it on board before storing it.

In order to get there, I have to take a cab en route to the ferry terminal (USD 9) and then another express boat to Vung Tau City (VND 180,000.00) * RM1 =VND 6,200.
If you want to get there by taxi, it will cost you around USD 70++, depending on how kind the taxi driver were, or how good looking you are. (At least I think so).

When we hit the road, I was thinking. “This is *&^%*(* cool, same old city”.
I kept wondering if traffic lights in Vietnam is only for display purpose, or the Vietnamese just purely have colour-blindness.

No matter what it is, I am sure of one thing.

Vietnamese motor-bikers will definitely make Mat Rempit in Malaysia look like a sick chicken waiting to be sacrificed.

Looking at the city and traffics, catching a deep breath, I told myself. “Hung Yew, welcome back to Vietnam”.

Time to fly again...

“You would not believe your eye, If ten million fireflies,
Lit up the world as I fell asleep~~”

It is my phone ringtone.

“We need you to be in Vietnam next week when you come back, is it ok?”

“Ok, no problem”

Put down the phone, click. I know this is coming, but not so soon?

It is going to be a long trip away from home. For the first time in my work, I do not have any idea of when I will be home.

Launching the internet explorer, and immediately key in “Travel advisor on how to get to Vung Tau, Vietnam”.
So I have decided. By Air to Ho Chi Minh, by sea to Vung Tau, and by Air again to a ship in the middle of the ocean.

Sounds pretty much an adventure this time, considering that I am travelling alone.
I am going to take tonnes of pictures and put it here after I come home.

So, don’t have to be surprise that the post here will not be updated regularly for the next two weeks.