2010 flashback : Penang and Phuket in November

So, at the end of the year, when we thought we will only be travelling at the end of the year, we went to Penang with a few friends to eat, eat and eat and then at the end of the month, we were invited for a luxurious Phuket getaway.

2010 flashback : Korea in July and England in September

It was a business trip but as I never been to Korea, either North or South, it was a trip of discovery and I did do a little RnR with the bank manager who was with me.

The 24 malls area, Dongdaemon

The River Han

Then exactly after Eidul Fitri (which I celebrated for 2 days in Malaysia) my wife and I went off to London for a 10 days trip. It was memorable and we managed to catch up with a few old friends.

Thanks to the brother and his family who is residing there now for awhile...

2010 flashback : Singapore in May n Kuantan in June

In May I was in Singapore for a few days. It was actually to watch Chicago the musical (which I consider quite good and true to the original Chicago than the one which came to KL in 2007) but we deviate a little and visited Universal Studio Singapore. Actually, although Chicago was good, being in Universal Studio and being a kid became a memory we treasure more. We also traveled using a bus albeit a very comfortable one which is kinda a first for the 2 of us.

Then in June, we were in Kuantan for not even a day (between 12pm until 1am) to eat. Yes, I do that a lot. A day trip and a roadtrip all roll into one. Met with a Twitter friend @taeyong who was gracious enough to be our host for the day. We ate ikan patin by the Kuantan River, ate kuih like sata, otak-otak (Pahang style) at Tanjung Lumpur), eat some seafood at Mail Ikan Bakar, drink/bought some Kemaman Coffee and brought home the Murtabak Makasar. All thanks to a friend we never met before. We gained 10kg at the end of the trip. 'Full and satisfied' is an understatement.

2010 flashback : Umrah in March

It was a special moment as although I already been to Mekah before, I went for umrah this time with my wife and my mother-in-law. This mini pilgrimage is a beautiful moment and can only be beaten when we go for our Haj one day...... Insyaallah...

We did stop for transit in Bahrain while the F1 fever hits the city as the first stop of the year for that motorsport event.

And the food in these Arabs countries for someone who loves Arab food is just incredible.

And even got to know a new friend whose chance circumstances can only be described as mysterious.

My wish is to go there a few times more in my lifetime....

2010 flashback : Phi Phi Island in February

Went back to this island of the coast of Krabi in Thailand that we had our honeymoon in 2003 last February. It has changed due to the tsunami of 2004 but still the charm remains :

Most pictures above are of the view you can find there

Cheap seafood

And cats

Our new addition

Mr. Pudgy is not really a new cat in our household. He has been in our house for nearly 3 months. It is just that he is so kitten-like, still, after all these times that we think he just add to the colourful character that cats have. He had a bad case of scabs when he was still small and that is now healed....

And as a writer, after reading so many quotes from writers of yore about cat and their mischievousness ways, I can relate how watching them makes you unable to work....

Mr Pudgy watching TV

Showing off his big-ass

Helping as we organise our books

Why Mr. Pudgy? Just look at his bulging tummy which is bigger than him....

Being taken to the vet

Showing off one of his skill of chasing some loose cloth

Having a brawl with his best friend, another stray we took in, Wolfie

Like any other kitten, he has a battery life which just makes us mad sometimes. But entertaining... Here's a video of him doing his stuff (sorry for the bad video quality)

A library at home

We have only one shelf which we could not fit all the books we ever bought. Our magazines are not organised properly. They are just stacked on the floors. Years of living does that to whatever collection you decide to not throw away.

So, we bought shelves from IKEA. Not really a made-to-order library but it is just what we need. Some guys from IKEA installed it and on one fine rainy morning I decided to move all our books from that one shelf (and some of those on the floor beside my bed) to that new shelves.

With some help of course (they were checking the titles)

Tired helpers

A few questions I asked on Twitter while working :

How do you organised a home library? Do you lump Stephen King with Neil Gaiman? Is Haruki Murakami a horror writer? How about Terry Pratchett and Paulo Cuelho? Different genre?

One of the best answer comes from Pete Teo (yes, the singer, songwriter and producer) :

"home libraries shld b filed by instinct. The only person who cn find books thr shld b the owner. Otherwise it'd b charmless.:)"