Dinner at Petaling Street - 25 February 2009

Our CEO was hosting this year's York Forum and had a dozen or so CEO's and directors of various science centres/museums worldwide in town. The York Forum started off in York, England some years ago and it was strictly by invitation of the host. Yup, the host could choose to not invite people he/she didn't like! The big wigs would meet and discuss worldwide science centre issues, etc. mostly during the day and in the evenings it would be fun, fun, fun..

It was the 3rd day of the forum and makan at Petaling Street aka Chinatown was on the cards. Fred and I were roped in to arrange the makan.. to be precise, our task was to order the makan, which was Chinese seafood..

Fred and I left the office at about 5.20pm to meet Shamini at the Central Market LRT station at 6pm. We arived early and Shamini informed that they're running late. So, Fred and I headed off to Peter Hoe's for a drink and a light bite.
Graffiti near the LRT station - pretty good work!

I'd not been to Peter Hoe's in a while but nothing much had changed - the merchandise were still pretty and affordable and the staff as grumpy as ever! Haha.. We'd just sat down to have our drinks when Shamini arrived, a little drench from the downpour. Fred and I split a carrot cake, which was a bit disappointing - it was a little crumbly and was smothered with sugar instead of cheese frosting. Aiya! Also, the guy at the counter refused to give me ice coffee! In his words, "I can make hot coffee for you and I can give you some ice". Duh,, would it kill him to put ice into the coffee?? Shamini had the quiche which was pretty yummy.

Fred & Shamini at Peter Hoe's..

We left for to go to the restaurant called "Restoran Roland" at about 7pm and thankfully by then the rain had stopped pouring and was just a slight drizzle.

The restaurant also sells a variety of dried meat aka sweet meat to us locals or bak kua in Hokkien..

The delegates started trickling in.. Unfortunately, we couldn't seat them all in one table and had to split them up..

This is Bryce, the avid photographer, who was also on the same delayed flight out of Langkawi as I was.. He didn't manage to switch to the 9.30pm flight and was stuck at the Langkawi airport till 11.pm.. poor, guy! Appetiser - spring rolls. Big hit.. I think they were hungry..

I'd only managed to take pix of the tofu and squid.. then, I got busy trying to get all the food out on time for both tables.. There was steamed fish, 2 types of stir fried veges, black pepper butter prawns, sour & spicy chilli crabs, deep fried fish with soya sauce gravy.. I'm sure there was more.. I'm sure there was a chicken dish.. can't remember la..

I love this pix.. totally accidental but pretty.. like some kind of abstract art piece.. taken from the bus enroute Traders Hotel where the delegates were staying.

There was quite a bit of leftovers, most of which was given to our CEO to deal with but Fred was still stuck with one pack of crabs and Shamini with 2 boxes of siew pau! Here we are at the lobby of the hotel with our food.. haha..

The signage on the LCD monitor at the lobby..

This is my first visit to the hotel and I must say I like their minimalist and symetrical vibe..

Details on the walls of the lift.. pretty transparent beads in the lobby..

We finally called it a night at about 10.30pm and headed home..

Work Trip to Langkawi Part 1 - 22 February 2009

I was a li'l bummed out about going to Langkawi over the weekend but doing it on the weekend was the best way to go so that the trip doesn't affect my work in the office (from Monday to Friday) as there was SO much to do! I was also bummed out at first when the trip was scheduled on Saturday as I had already had plans, one of which was to meet up with my long time friend Geetha, whom I had not seen in 20 odd years! Fortunately, the trip was re-scheduled to Sunday, a work day in Langkawi.

We, as in Munir from our ad agency, Calvin our supplier and moi, got in to Langkawi at about 9.30am and first headed for breakfast - nasi lemak with freshly fried chicken! Yummy! Then, it was off to work. With two thirds of the work done and very much ahead of schedule, we took some time off to go have some fun at the Langkawi Cable Car. Although I had been up once before, it was still exciting!

The view of the cable car from the car park.. The entance into the Langkawi Cable Car station..
The pretty garden enroute the station.. Budding lotus, which I'm sure would be simply beautiful in full bloom!

Pretty parrot..

Entrance to the cable car..

Austrian techonology of the cable car... Big wheels keep on turning..

Up, up and away.. The saying goes, "a picture paints a thousand words" but in this case, pictures alone are not enough to describe this great experience!

Looking down.. On the left is, what I think is, part of the Telaga Tujuh waterfalls.. See that brownish patch in the pix on the right? Well, that's where we started off!

Approaching the 2nd station.. the suspension bridge to the right..

From the 2nd station lookin back at the 1st station.. It's a short walk downhill to get to the bridge. Getting back up can leave you quite breathless but it's SO worth the walk!

The bridge.. looking from one end to the other.. It can be a tad scary being on the bridge as it moves but SO worth the experience!

View from the middle of the bridge.. looking up to the viewing deck above (a short climb to the top from the station).. Me on the bridge..

Looking down.. and looking up..

Looking left and looking right.. (if you're heading to the end of the bridge)

The cute suggestion box, yes, in the shape of a cable car! Pretty full.. It's either they had loads of suggestion that day or no one's been collecting the suggestions, which totally defeats the purpose of the box, no?

These beautiful rock formations were at.. around the north east side of the island, just before the Kedah Cement factory, a massive, imposing structure set against the kampung houses. We travelled this route after the cable cars to get to Kuah to complete the remaining one third of our work.

We got to Kuah, did what we had to do, had some lunch did a spot of shopping at the duty shops and headed for the airport. My flight was at 5.30pm, while the guys were due to take off at 6.30pm. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed! Damn! So, the guys got in, took off, landed in KLIA and I was still stuck at Langkawi airport! Aww, man! Anyway, I'd managed to switch to the 9.30pm flight, which took off on time and I finally got home at 11.30pm - so much for wanting to get home early! Well, still, I count my blessing 'coz if I had not switched to the 9.30pm flight I would've still been at the Langkawi airport - my original 5.30pm flight only took off at about 11.30pm! Yes, 6 hours late!

Another Saturday Morning at Segi College - 21 February 2009

This is the 3rd time I'm helping my colleague, Daniel, assess the work of his Visual Communications students' work. Over the past 2 sessions, there were some students' work that wowed us and some that just made us go, "uh-huh...". This session, I'd been told, would consist of brands such as Coke, La Senza, Forever 21, The Body Shop, Malaysian Kennel Association and Starbucks presented by an all-female class. Big brands.. ambitious.. interesting - definitely looked forward to seeing their work.

I'd nearly not made this session as I had to work (a day trip to Langkawi) but the trip was rescheduled to Sunday (the next day as it was a work day in Langkawi). The other 2 assessors were Ash and Roslan (from Segi's Graphics Art course). And, as usual, Daniel was as kind as ever to throw in breakfast and lunch. Ash came to pick me up at about 9am and we made it in good time to have breakfast before our session at 10am.

Daniel & Ash at breakfast..

The session started promptly at 10am beacuse we were on a somewhat tight schedule as Ash had to leave by about 1.30pm

Ash checking out... the girls!

The Body Shop Baby Range - the "baby" icon I found disturbing!

I've included the above pix not becuse I thought it was great but simply because it was the only presentation that featured products. The rest mainly consisted of a series of collaterals. Sadly for the girls, we knew most of the brands well (I was one up on the boys with La Senza, of course, and MKA) and most of us knew very little about Forever 21. Despite Daniel telling us numerous times to look at and assess mainly on the visual communication, it was hard to ignore that more often then not, the concept and/or "big idea" was just not spot on, thus, making the visual communication wrong. This time around, there was nothing that really wowed. There was only one which made for a believable campaign and the rest were pretty immature, one even incomplete! There was one that had great artwork - if she bacame an art director or designer, working with a copywriter and a possibly a strategic planner, she could do well.

Ash busy filling out his asessment form before dashing off.. Me blending into the walls with my favourite yellow t-shirt.

Ash had run late and dashed off and I had a lunch appointment. So, Daniel didn't have to babysit us for lunch. We had given the girls lots of constructive comments and suggestions, which we can only hope thagt they will remember and put to good use.