Bali: A GoPro holiday

Hello! It's been a while since I wrote on here. We've just returned from our holiday in Malaysia and Bali. Malaysia is the country of birth where I last visited 7-8 years ago, so it was more of a catch up visit (mainly with food).

This was my first trip to Bali and it was amazing. Long story short, we stayed at Kuta for a couple of nights, more out of obligation than necessity. A bit of advice - avoid Kuta and Denpasar as a whole, as the area is a bit of a hell hole and brings out the worst in Bali and tourists.

We moved on to North Bali and stayed at Pemuteran for a couple of nights. The B&B we stayed in is Taruna, a small family run business who were keen to help out with the planning of all our activities. While Kuta is populated by families and surfers, North Bali is far quieter. The people are friendlier and you meet all sorts of European backpackers. Pemuteran is a great base for those wishing to dive in Menjangan Island or visit the beaches of Lovina.

For this trip, my Nikon stayed at home. In its place was a GoPro Hero3+ action camera. We had a couple of reason for bringing a GoPro instead of a high quality image shooter. Firstly, we wanted to travel light and secondly, a waterproof case for a SLR costs more than a GoPro itself. And finally, I just wanted to get my hands dirty on trying out video shooting and editing.

In any case, here's five minutes of our Bali trip, edited down from tens of hours of footage using GoPro's excellent Studio 2.0 program with their Hero3 reel template. Bring on next year!

Roti King review

Nasi Lemak

Roti King is a Malaysian cafe/restaurant located close to London Euston railway station. Formerly located in Charring Cross, they moved there earlier this year.

Good and cheap Malaysian food are hard to come by in London. There are a couple - for example Malaysian Hall in Bayswater area is run by the Malaysian government, and Malaysian Deli in our very own Brockley. But Roti King does something that neither of those does - proper roti canai.

Roti canai is a type of fluffy flat bread sold in Malaysia, an is normally eaten as a side with curry or dhal (lentil) sauce. It is a versatile dish, and can be combined with other ingredients like eggs and meat, but the best is still the plain ol kind. It is light and fluffier that the kind of flatbread that are normally served in Indian restaurants in this country. When I used to live in Malaysia, I would have it for breakfast, lunch an occasionally, dinner.

Pasar malam in Trafalgar Square

This Friday Trafalgar Square will host a traditional Malaysia night market (Pasar Malam). The event starts from 3pm to 10pm and Malaysia Kitchen has promised that there would be about 20 Malaysian restaurants with stalls serving up delicious food for Londoners to sample.

If you are planning to attend I suggest to sample the beef rendang, satay (hopefully they have them properly grilled unlike the tacky oven based stuff they serve in London-based Thai restaurants) and laksa. There will also be stalls selling authentic ingredients like spices and pastes.

I will be there with some mates, hopefully throughout the evening. If you want to meet up @ on twitter.

Time for a change?

Now that the opposition has increased their stakes, let's see some proper debates and not just bitching for the sake of bitching (something that goes on far too well in Malaysia's political landscape).

1. Complete abolishment of fuel subsidies for the majority.
2. Invest in public transportation.
3. Introduce anti-discrimination laws. Not only racial, but also social background, gender, political leanings and sexual preferences.
4. Stop blaming shit on foreigners. Without them, the country will fail.
5. Pour much more money into the health service.
6. No more public investments into shit like Formula One, ugly apartments and woeful footballers.
7. Guarantee people the freedom FROM religion.

Malaysian music

Was chatting someone today and she brought up the subject of Malaysian music. Then it hit me, damn, I used to be a fan of mid 1990s Malaysian music scenes, and I miss it. Bands like KRU, Wings and Search and people like Ella, Sheila Majid, Ning Baizura, Erra Fazira, Ziana Zain and the beautiful Fauziah Latiff (ah, I had a penchant for Malay female artists back then). Those were the days before I discovered Death Metal.

Anyway when I signed off went straight to YouTube and watched a couple of illegally uploaded videos. I think I spent hours just watching and reminiscing about those time when I spend more time listening to music and reading Malaysian magazines like Gelihati and Gila Gila and Japanese mangas. Sigh, better try to find those cassettes that I spent a huge fortune on!

Food Review: Melati bar & restaurant, Brighton

I have read some pretty good reviews on Melati but even then I tend to avoid 'upmarket' Asian bar/restaurant hybrids due to their reputation for presentation rather than quality.


The dining area is separated from the bar area. The first thing I noticed was how barren the place was. A couple of people were at the bar and a couple was dining outside. But that's it.


The first 'what the fuck' came when they served a classic Malaysian drink called 'teh tarik' in a wine glass! Like, what the fuck.


This is the starter called the 'perkedel jagung', an Indonesia starter. It's stuffed with corns and some other stuff. It was okay but two pieces??? Jesus.


The 'satey' was abysmal. It is totally nothing like what you can get from Malaysia. Even kebab shops serve more authentic skewered meat than this. To their credit they did serve them with 'ketupat'.


The 'satey' sauce was alright. Not as "peanutie" as I would have preferred.


The sambal daging was quite tasteless. Look at the portion of rice given. It was pathetic. It looks a lot but they garnished the whole thing with onions.


The beef 'rendang' actually came with more meat than rice, which isn't really saying much as the portion is still pretty small. But at least it was pretty authentic. Not as spicy as it should have been.

What can I say? I was pretty disappointed by the visit. For the price the portions were downright outrageous. This isn't Claridge you know. Apart from the 'rendang', the authenticity of the food are questionable. There are much better Malaysian/Indonesian/Singaporean restaurants in the South-East - Nyonya in Notting Hill, Kopi Tiam in Soho and Malay House in Brighton.

Technorati tags: Melati

Religion

A Malaysian Muslim blogger has posted a questionable and unfavourable article in regards to Christianity in Malaysia. In retaliation, another blogger wrote a damning response, which was rather good.

In a perfect world we would just leave it at there and nobody would bother. Unfortunately much of Malaysia's Christian blogosphere (well those who resides on PPS anyway) decided to participate in this virtual melee of sorts, by trading childish insults. Some has even threatened to bring the attention to the police! I cringe at your mentality.

All this and what do I think? Well I have always been in the position to question religion in general and whether it is relevant in this modern world. In the UK where political correctness is fast becoming a fact of life, criticising someone could easily land you in front of a judge. It is fortunate that judges here are still sound minded.

This whole issue reminds me of why the British government's attempt to pass the Racial & Religious Hatred Bill was wrong. Where if it weren't for the upper house and Labour rebels, the bill could have made it illegal for people like me to criticise certain organized religions and their fanatical supporters.

The other problem with the bill is that it doesn't attempt to protect people like me, who isn't bound by religion, from organised religions whereas people with religion are protected. Like the Catholic Church needs more protection.

I don't hate religion, and I certainly have respect for whatever people chose to believe in, but I do find it annoying to be told that I will burn in hell if I do not believe in certain Gods or Messiah or books or whatever. I may not be gay but I resent the fact the certain religions could even come up with some draconian explanation to force their approved sexuality upon the world.

Yes, protest all you want. Da Vinci Code. Jerry Springer Opera. Danish newspapers. David Irving. Birmingham's Behzti. Playboy. Just don't drag the rest of us (the majority) into your rather mindless escapade. Because even if their views are wrong, it is equally wrong to deny them their right to speak up.

I always thought that blogs are the Interweb replacement to much controlled Speakers' Corner, and should never be regulated, and if so, should be minimal as far as the law would allow it to be. So I would like to thank in advance to the idiots who wanted to bring the blogger in question to the attention of the police. Thanks to you, perhaps one day Malaysia will introduce a bill that would require Malaysian bloggers to be registered - much like in China.

Debates such as those of religion would only be limited to small and harmless academic critiques rather than the full blown insults that it probably deserves.

Bigots, whether they be Christians or Muslims, Jewish or Hindus, should always be allowed to be speak up as long as violence isn't involved. It is up to you to then debate with them rationally.

Blog if you want but to sink to their level by attempting to ban their thoughts by contacting their host or by trying to get them arrested? That is low. Even for you ultra religious people. It boggles the mind that such irrational fears still exists.

Technorati tags: Malaysia Religion

Freedom of speech

Just a little of my two pence on the latest Malaysian 'blogosphere' controversial regarding a seditious comment left by a visitor on a 'prominent' Malaysian blog.

Firstly, I do not agree with the whole thing. While the comment is probably racist in nature (I did not read it) I always thought the simple delete button would be sufficient enough.

Then there is the idea of lodging a police report in order to catch someone for having an opinion no matter how awful the opinion is, is itself pretty bad and in my personal opinion is a suppression of free speech. Police state? Too fucking right.

And like someone else already said (somewhere), the only winner here is the commentator him/herself. All this ho-hum is just giving him/her more publicity than what he/she deserves. What they managed to achieve is simply over-reaction and glorification of the supposed seditious comment.

As the web matures, it seems that sooner rather than later we would need an online playground equivalent to Speakers Corner where commentators are allowed total freedom of speech - protected by a charter similar to Speakers Corner. Isn't that what we are battling for in Malaysia? Isn't the whole concept of the Interweb supposed to be about free speech? Take back the web? You mean giving it away?

It seems however that those in favour of free speech seems only content with allowing free speech to those opinions which they agreed.

Like China.

Tit for tat

I am a little bored now. Can't be arsed to update my blog for the next couple of days.

My PDA mobile is dying too. Damn HTC crappy product. Need to send for repair.

Some good news though. It is that time of the year again - to choose what mobile my service provider is willing to hand over for free. Priority is a smartphone device so I can use MetrO for tube/underground/railway/bus journey planning. TomTom too. But not so important. But I wouldn't mind the W800i as long as it is free.

o2 XDA Exec out next month. Saw one today (T-Mob version) and it is huge! 285g is almost like carrying 2 1/2 mobile! Anybody wants this has to invest in a bluetooth headset. Gaming support looks to be quite poor too with its odd button layout.

If there is one company I promised never to deal business with, it would be Dell, due to historical experience owning Dell notebooks (in my case) hasn't been fun. The keys from my old Inspiron 7000 kept popping out and the 8100 isn't any better. I won't go into a whole rant about their notebook's lack of quality because it will require more than this blog to do so.

But after reading up and checking out the latest price, the old Axim X50v would soon me mine. I know it would be a HTC product (can't do anything about it - they monopolised the PDA market) but this product has been out for a year now. Any jinks surely would be ironed out by now. On the other hand my broken mobile was only two weeks old when I ordered it.

Regret? Maybe 'cause of the brand name but they (Dell) will be offering Windows Mobile 5.0 upgrade. And I need WiFi now. I know I cheapened WiFi's usefulness in the past (mainly due to London's inability to provide cheap and cheerful connections), but my household recently got WiFi'ed and we are sharing a BT broadband connection. Getting a WiFi'ed portable device will help with my international phone calls (I do not like to use Skype on PC to make phone calls) to my parents in Malaysia.

Oh, after fixing my mobile, it would be going to Jennifer. She is fedup with PalmOS's stagnating platform and will be joining the dark side*. Anyone interested in a used Palm Tungsten T3?

* Don't get me wrong. I still love the PalmOS platform. But where the bloody hell is Cobalt???

-

Haven't been following the Malaysian "blogosphere" for some time. Fired up PetalingStreet today and through a couple of links found the following:

1. Blogging queen disses city.
2. Damage control! Damage control!
3. Brit expat defends city and insults the prima donna.
4. Girl wondering why nobody is defending her, orders posse to spam blog in question.
5. Malaysia's resident angmoh fires back.

Funny how the most ridiculous comments (from either side) are made by anonymous people.

Do enjoy.

Dissent can be a good thing

It can. Especially today.

-

Last Saturday we had a little chat with a nice lad from Scotland. Jonathan (yay!) happens to be married to an oriental (Taiwanese) and one game they like to play (or so claims Jon) is to guess which nationality some of the many orientals who walk London's streets everyday.

Weird? Of course not. Me and Jennifer plays this very game. We do not think it is racist but merely analysing our skills in stereotyping people then putting them into groups of nations. (Okay so it is mildly politically incorrect but so what?)

Example would be we notice a bunch of orientals on the tube. We would then discuss (in hush voice of course) and debate their ethnicity. Pinpointing Japanese tourists are easy - their (lack of) fashion sense is highly obvious. Koreans is a little tricky but as Jon puts it - Koreans are Japanese minus five years (behind the trends).

Most of the time getting things right would depend on us having to listen to their conversation. This is where things get tricky. My cantonese is appalling so I wouldn't be able to differentiate the accent of HongKong'nese and the South East Asian cantonese crowd.

Mandarin is easier (even though I do not speak the language). Getting the mainland chinese is superbly easy through this. From years of experience dealing with new students from P.R.C. I am always able to single them out by their mandarin accent which when compared to Malaysian mandarin accent - the chinese seems to speak with sliver in their mouth. Yeuch!

Of course most of the time it comes down to clothes, skin colour and hair style. Jon got me as originating from Malaysia because of my tanned skin (and probably my non-chalant non-dyed hair).

Now a darker shade of brown shouldn't be used to judge as my skin is so tanned to an extent that I can be classified as a Brazilian. But experience counts and my experience is most orientals originating from Northern regions (Hong Kong, Taiwan etc.) avoids the sun whenever possible.

Whenever you first visit a foreign country everybody apparently looks the same to you no? Not to me. But I do know many tourists who find it hard to recognise 'those white men' and tend to describe them as 'they all look alike', much like to some all 'chinese look alike' with slit eyes.

Recently we started broadening our game to include caucasians. With EU borders loosening up a little bit we are starting to see an influx of Polish and other Eastern European immigrants into London. Not a bad thing as they are very hard working. (I do know of some idiots who hate em all but fuck em, what do they know?)

One thing based on observation is the way Anglo-Saxons and Eastern Europeans dress. I find that in 80% of the case Eastern Europeans prefer to dress up in 'Americanised' clothing such a bikers jacket and mainly (90%) American sports brand. Not sure why. Perhaps mainland Europe is more 'westernised' than the Brits?

Another game we play (well most of the time it's just me) is sorting the Londoners from the Brit day-trippers. This is highly amusing but extremely difficult because of the diversity in London's metropolitan community. 7 million people. Usually we tend to just sort out the chavvies from the yuppies but that's easy.

-

Then there are the summer students from Europe. I do not hate them. I despise them. Not for who they are but for the way they treat London. 99% of them are guilty of at least one of the following crimes:

1. Thinking they know more about Londres than us.
2. Thinking they know more about the Tube than us.
3. Thinking that it is okay to crowd along a section of a Tube platform.
4. Thinking it is okay to swipe their pink ticket over the Oyster RFID reader. Therefore wasting time for the rest of us.
5. Thinking it is okay to stare. In the eyes.
6. Thinking it is okay to ask questions in Français (when speaking la langue du diable in Paris is frowned upon).

It is very easy to spot this bunch of little rascals. They tend to group together carrying ruck sacks sporting logos like EFL or ELS. They frequent fast food joints like McDonalds and Burger King despite hailing from culinary sophisticated countries. They talk loudly, are extremely rude and speak in nonsensical languages.

Actually just like my fellow Malaysians I used to school with in the Midlands back in 1998.

Who to blame for haze?

Since many Malaysians are still (or trying to be) ignorant (I used to be, on this subject) to the fact that there are Malaysian companies involved in the slash and burning in Indonesia, here is a extract from the BBC:

While criticism has been heaped on Indonesia for failing to stop practices which can lead to forest fires, many of the large palm oil firms in the area are actually owned by businessmen from Malaysia.

In comments likely to spark fresh controversy, the Indonesian forestry minister said on Friday that at least 10 Malaysian plantation companies were operating in the affected area of Sumatra.

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi vowed that action would be taken against any Malaysian companies caught burning forests in Indonesia.

"I feel very wretched. By now, they should have realised that what they did would have an impact here in Malaysia, their own country," he told the Associated Press. (source)

So go blame them: poor law enforcement, corruption at every level of the government and greedy Malaysian businessmen. Yeah, fog them too.

"Fuel prices up! Oh my what do we do?!?"

Latest news out of my birth country is fuel prices are up. Well actually the prices of fuel has been going up around the whole wide world (in London average of 90p for 'unleaded 95' - up from 80p in January).

But to some in the Malaysian "blogosphere", fuel prices evolves around them. There are those who exercised irresponsibility by urging people to rush to the garage and have their cars tanked up before midnight just to save a few ringgit.

"It is the economy, stupid!"

It is about time Malaysians learn that Malaysia's fuels are subsidised! You are paying less than the people around the world do! Are we forgetting about inflation? You just can't stop it. That is capitalism for you and the country (unfortunately) has subscribed to that system.

"The government does not grow money on trees."

Money spent on subsidising your car's drink so you could drive merrily around just for the sake of driving, is much better spent improving the education and health care sector.

BTW, Halian has blogged on the fuel increase. His view is very much the same as mine although he didn't go so far as to recommend the total abolishment of fuel subsidies, something I am in favour of.

Imagine that? Billions of Malaysia Ringgits every year would be freed up to boost up the country's ailing public transport system.

Visit Kuala Lumpur pledge

I just got off the phone from my dad. He isn't too pleased with my blog - not because of privacy or anything religiously offensive - but because of my 'Do not visit KL' blurb. So to appease him (and the mighty government):

Visit Kuala Lumpur

Here is a short discription of KL (plagiarised from Lonely Planet):

KL is an Asian tiger that roars (funny, I have not seen a tiger in Malaysia for years since the rumours that a three legged tiger is supposed to roam the jungles behind our home). The city has two million dwellers, has the world's (not now) tallest building and Chinatown (curiously I have not been to Chinatown KL). The city is modern with gleaming(?) skyscrapers but also retains much of the local colour that has been wiped out in other Asian boom-cities such as Singapore. Plenty of colonial buildings and a bustling Little India.

Seriously speaking, do visit KL. It is a nice little city and most of my British friends (Dave, Danny, Richard, Lawrence, Anne, Stuart) who has been there truly enjoyed the city and food.

It is just a book people!

So he is dead, big deal - it is a just a book people, get a grip! It is not as if no one saw it coming. The rumour has been out that he/she would be killed. Plus we know that there are worst things than death in the Harry Potter world. I am sure he will feature in book seven (as a memory) as so don't worry.

Harry Potter's new love interest is a little disappointing and so is Ron's. You could have seen in coming since book two so I was surprised that the author followed such a predictable path. Oh well, it is a book I have to remind myself that and so do you!

Normal blog resumes today. The telly is still full of talking heads on the London bombing. There is a nice new theory that the bombers were tricked. Does that make if any less worst? No of course not! Suicide bombing or IRA style bombing, they intended to kill innocent people. And they are Muslims. Reading the prints over the last week where the Muslim community has attempted to distance the bombers from the faith as unislamic is really pretty pathetic.

These people were Muslims but they also happened to be murderers just like the dead and new popes are Catholics and are both fundamentalists (who has called Harry Potter anti-Christian) and that Tony Blair is an 50% Anglican 50% Catholic who ordered an illegal war which killed at least 20,000 Iraqis.

I just spoke to my parents and me mum informed me that the Malaysian government has issued a travel alert to London due to the possibility of another bombing soon. Really? We haven't heard of any such alerts from our authorities here. I wonder how the Malaysian government could release such rumours. Which is why I am urging Londoners:

not to visit Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya administration centre in Malaysia due to risk of being exposed to the idiots who run that country.

Rant: Oil prices increase, so what?

This is another rant. Sorry if I am a little too simple in the straight forwardness of my 'message'. This may offend car owners (or at least owners of big cars).

Stop complaining about high oil prices. Sikit sikit naik pun mau komplain. Malaysia drivers still enjoy pretty damn low cost petrol when compared to other countries. Instead - swallow it and pay it. The world's crude oil supply isn't getting any higher what with stronger demand.

Use the public transport. Don't use your car to drive 200 yards just to get a loaf of bread. Walk. Jog. Cycle. Use public buses. Use a skate board. Rollerblade to work. Car pool. Get a VW Lupo. Get a Smart ForTwo. Get a Toyota Prius. You don't need a big arse 4x4 (SUV) just to drive alone in an urban city.

Kuala Lumpur already has a system of light trains in place, however shit or ill-thought out they are - they are still useful. My stance is very clear: the Malaysian government should abolish fuel subsidies and instead introduce fuel duty. This can be counteract through lowering car import taxes and/or road taxes.

The fact of the matter is what I am witnessing in Malaysia's culture is the total dependency on automobiles. Harga petrol naik tapi gaji tak naik. Naik naik sahaja, apalah kerajaan ini, mau curi kita punya duit. Oi, harga naik esok lah, jom pergi kat steysen isi cepat! I wouldn't be surprised if Malaysia goes the same way as the US in invading some country (technically impossible, but then again our government loves to dream) in order to preserve their way of life.

Ai...Malaysia...

Here is a piece on BBC New's on Malaysia's continued attack on freedom of religion.

Okay, so they are a sect cult, have a funny name and have a leader by the name of Ayah Pin (Father Pin). They probably do weird stuff such as worshipping their giant teapot. But I don't see anyone being hurt physically or financially by being members of the sect.

Because the leader was born a muslim all his actions are now judged on muslim law (although he has renounced the religion). By meeting Christians and Hindus, the government has deemed him to be 'unislamic' which all seems to be a little weird - I always thought the government would at least pretend to be supportive of religious tolerance and harmony.

Then there is this piece by Malaysia's current favourite red top tabloid. This blog entry by Lee Koi pretty much sums what I feel with a strong arguement for equality towards gays and transvestities. Maybe it is time I quit the country for good.

Finally some sense from Malaysia's government

I totally welcome this initiative by the Malaysian government to distribute free condoms in order to combat the spread of HIV. Like it or not humans will always practice sex and if free condoms means someone is saved from a life threatening virus then so much the better.

The past two days Mrs. Blair has come under heavy criticism from some pretend prints such as The Daily Mail (ugh...) for her trip to Malaysia next month. Now I am not a Cherie Blair fan but I am on the fence on this one. Cherie Blair while isn't free from scandal, she does support the abolition of the death penalty and her human right record speaks for itself (apart from her support from the illegal invasion of Iraq).

But then again Malaysia needs a good kick in the arse to realise that the country is in essential a pariah nation in the eyes of the world. And if Cherie cancels the tour to humiliate the government then so be it. Because it is shit like this that makes me mad.

Now so far I have kept my nose out of the so called Sarong Girl debate. My opinion is this: The media probably had the right to keep tabs on bloggers, that is what people in the media do anyway. And the Malaysia blogging community had the right to defend her.

But so far all I saw were childish behaviours accusing someone of bad journalism. Is that the best one can do? I am a hardcode liberal and believe in female's right to show of their bodies or do whatever they want, but somehow in my humble opinion this whole issue was started because the blogger in question was an attention seeker (like that Hustler bloke).

Malaysia U-turn on immigrants ban

I don't know about you, but it is shit like this that embarrasses me as a Malaysian. What a fucking mess.

Abolish fuel subsidies

Residents of Malaysia are dead lucky. They enjoy dead cheap fuel and yet complain whenever the government cuts the subsidies. In fact the demand for ultra cheap fuel is so great that there is a booming trade in smuggled crude oil.

And this despite the fact that all around the World fuel prices are increasing. Fossil fuel isn't a renewable energy source you know. Anybody with a little bit of economic knowledge will know that prices will have to increase as demand grows and supplies dip.

I am still shock that Malaysia residents are still able to enjoy subsidised fuel. In such a polluted world (especially now with the increased car usage in China) I would have thought that instead of subsidies, they should be taxing fuel and use the money saved (est. ranges from MYR5 billion to MYR10 billion) to improve the mismanaged public transport system and other public services such as health and education.

Sell those useless SUVs (Urban 4x4s aka Chelsea tractors) and get a Smart instead.

News source: The Star, Bernama

Why subsidies must end

Wastemonsters

Btw, congrats to Liverpool on their drubbing over Chelski. Money can't buy success you know and the best team won this time.

KL-London thoughts

Well, two weeks ago I did the London-KL trip thought, now having finally arrived back in London, this is my KL-London thoughts.

Firstly KLIA, what a clean sterile place. It was also empty giving the whole place an eerie feeling. I proceeded to the book store and start hunting for books. Imagine my shock when I found that most of the books sold here costs more than Kuala Lumpur's MPH store and even London's popular book stores like Borders and Waterstones.

Since I am not really into luxury items, I had to skip half of KLIA shops. The next trip was the video store where I started searching for the so called Sepet DVD/VCD. You see I do not know anything about this film except its about a Chinese guy and Malay gal falling in love. I also happen to think its kinda arty. This assumption is purely based on the publicity stills I have seen in magazines and websites and some reviews I have read. Well I missed the movie when I was in KLCC on Thursday and thought I could get the video. No matter, we have bittorrent.

A quick trip to the sole electronic store reveals nothing that I desired. Of all the shops I spent most of my time at the tourist stores. I am a Malaysian and I shop for tourist stuffs!!! Well I got a couple of beads for my junkie British friends who happens to love Malaysia.

With an hour to kill, I decided to wait by the gate and read my book. Boarded at about 11.45am and I found myself having four seats by myself. Sadly its because there were a couple of people who came in 20 minutes late (and delayed our Plane by 30 minutes). Well I got 1 1/2 seat for myself sharing it with my Australian (?) neighbour.

Because we were flying towards London, we were always in the sun. Could not sleep at all because MAS stewards did not instruct the closing of windows this time around. I had only three hours of sleep last night so it was important I got a little nap. Well they were showing Ocean's Twelve, Elektra and Spanglish on the tiny screens. All of which disappointed me.

By the way, if you were hoping that MAS has upgraded the cabins to the ones widely reported in the newspapers last week, you would be disappointed. We were all stuck with ten year old designs. Enquire first with MAS before booking your flight, if not just fly with some other airlines like Emirates or Lufthansa or even Singapore Airlines.

Food was mildly enjoyable this time around. I had some lamb thingy with roasted potatoes for lunch and ravioli with cheese and tomato for dinner. Just proves that catering on MAS is best left to those ground crew in Malaysia and not those incompetents in London (London-KL food are horrible).

Magazines were provided in the form of Newsweek and Time, both full of coverage pertaining to a certain woman called Terri. The nice lady next to me brought out her copy of a fashion magazine, a suplement of Time magazine in which it went into details of China's female fetish for bourgeoise fashion. It was an interesting read.

We arrived at London Heathrow at roughly 6.30pm BST. Immigration was quick this time. It usually takes about 1/2 hour to navigate through the queues but this time I only had six people in front of me. Baggage reclaim was as sore as my experience in KLIA two weeks ago. 45 minutes of waiting. A ground crew staff told me this was because there was only one guy unloading the cargo!

A short trip out the jammed green lane and I was soon on the underground back to my place. I was sharing the same box on the Piccadilly Line with a couple who cannot stop touching each other. Ah...what a sight...what freedom...I was so glad to be back in such a liberal city, I immediately went fishing for today's Observer at the local newsagent but by then it was too late, all the copies has been sold out.