Ridiculous Roti Names Is it just me or are Roti names getting more and more ridiculous? Maybe after Roti I Love You, they're gonna Roti Kahwin and have a Roti Boy.I'm Banging the Kok with my two winners from my Mister Potato TV Commercial contest. Last night we ate fried grasshoppers for supper. Battle Of The Chief Ministers The only thing missing in the lead up to the live debate between the current and the former Penang Chief Ministers next week, is this. The Official Guan Eng vs Tsu Koon Betting Sheet Lim Guan Eng Koh Tsu Koon Odds Bet Amount Odds Bet Amount First To Speak 1.9 RM 1.9 RM First To Stutter And Stammer 4.6 RM 1.7 RM First To Shout At Opponent And Lose His Cool 5.2 RM 1.3 RM First To Make Personal Attack Against Opponent 1.8 RM 2.5 RM Loudest Applause From Audience 1.8 RM 2.5 RM Stutters The Most 4.6 RM 1.7 RM Speaks Beyond Allocated Time Limit 1.01 RM 1.0001 RM Purposely Avoid Answering Difficult Questions 2.5 RM 1.8 RM Wears A Suit Three Sizes Too Big 1.02 RM 54.6 RM Secretly Looks At Written Notes The Most 1.51 RM 4.2 RM Most Attempts At Lame Jokes 4.6 RM 1.7 RM Most Insincere Smile 3.2 RM 1.5 RM Sweats The Most 1.4 RM 4.3 RM Most Animated Hand Gestures During Speech 6.4 RM 1.2 RM Overall Debate Winner (No Handicap) 1.01 RM 258 RM Overall Debate Winner (Guan Eng Give Half Ball, Tsu Koon Eat) 1.3 RM 2.4 RM AD: You know those crystal thingies that girls like to bling their gadgets with? The Sticker Monster ain't your ordinary boutique blog. Jolene Lai sells a range of girly and adorable stickers alongside crystal stickers for blinging gadgets. Most of her items are considerably lower than retail rates and she even offers free postage to anywhere in Malaysia! mi-adidas This is not an advertorial, this is something awesome. It is no secret than I'm a fan of adidas. I like their shoes, I like their sportswears, I like the fun bunch of people who work there. Other sports brands have approached me before, but I turn them down because I genuinely like adidas stuff and I enjoy wearing them. My shoe cabinet is filled with many pairs of their shoes. Among them, my favourites are the Bounce I wear to gym, the Supernova I wear for my training runs and the adiZero CS that I will wear for my upcoming two marathons in Kota Kinabalu and Singapore. It's cool to have so many pairs of sports shoes, but recently I acquired a new pair of adidas that has firmly secured its place as my number one favourite shoes. My very own custom-made adidas! They call it mi-adidas. As far as I know, adidas Pavilion KL is the only store in the whole of Malaysia that allows you to personalise your own shoes. Getting your own custom-made shoes cost around RM600, depending on the design. That works out to be about RM200 dearer than those mass-produced shoes. The way mi-adidas works is pretty impressive. To get started, I need to make an appointment with adidas Pavilion. The process begins with a member of the adidas sales staff precisely measuring my feet using this nifty piece of feet-measuring device. As soon as I stepped on it, the motorised red scanners start moving around my feet like something out of a James Bond movie. The device measured my feeet and according to the computer, my left foot is US 9.5 and my right foot is US size 10. Hey, I never knew that my two feet are not symmetrical. Anyway, I was told my feet are pretty big for a Chinese. And you know what they say about men with big feet? ;) They wear big shoes. Not only does the computer measure the size of my feet, it measures my footprint as well. This is to determine the best form of cushioning for my feet. The red part shows which part of my feet I put the most pressure at. Apparently, I'm more heavy towards the right hand side. Again, I have no idea why that's the case. Maybe my balls on the right hand side is heavier than my left. So the sales person fed all these information into the computer. Then, it's time to choose which shoes I wanna personalise. mi-adidas is only available on certain running, basketball and tennis shoes. I went for the adidas Barracuda tennis shoes 'cos although I don't play tennis, it's got the most striking design out of all the choices available. Besides, if I'm gonna wear my custom-mades, I'd wear it more for looks than sports. The adidas sales staff guided me to select different design and colours for the shoes to my liking. I designed my shoe based on my two favourite colours of dark blue and white, which if you noticed, are kennysia.com's official colours. ;) I also added a touch of silver and gold for a more futuristic look. This is my final design. Almost every single portion of the shoe can be customised, from the skin, to the lining, to the laces and the soles. You can even print your name on it or put your country flag if you wanna. No need to worry if your colour coordination skills sucks. The computer is able to give a 3D sample of what the shoe would look like in the end. Once I've confirmed, they print out my design and I signed off the order. That's it! All that's left is to play the waiting game whilst the boffins at the adidas factory work around the clock to create my shoes. Four weeks later, I just pick them up from adidas Pavilion KL. Behold, the custom-made kennysia.com Barricade! Mine is the blue one, not the pink one. Check it out. It's even got my name on it, so no one would be able steal it and claim it as their own. Nice eh? (Hahaha! Geddit? "Eh" in Hokkien means shoes. Nice "eh"! Hahahaha!) (Ok fine, it's not very funny.)Special thanks to Sushi King for inviting Kim, Irene, Phyl, Sam and me sample their huge selection of dish during Unagi promotion. I'm definitely coming back for more. Whatever Doesn't Kill You Simply Makes You Stranger Sorry to all you haters out there. But you dickwads gotta get your facts from more credible sources before you all start bashing me. If you do things without integrity, then I don't owe you an explanation. If you're too coward to meet me face to face, then I don't owe you an explanation. If you're not a genuine friend or family of mine, then I most definitely do not owe you a freaking explanation. My life is not for your entertainment, so feel free to kiss my arse and fuck off. mlm_d^_^b_mlm Now that that's out of the way, regular kennysia.com postings will resume shortly after this entry. :)kennysia.com supports Dr Wee Ka Siong. Depression Why do I have to deal with all these bullshit? I should have died in that car crash.Half-truths are not truths. Crashed Into A Ditch This is my car. This is my car after it crashed into a ditch. Sigh. This happened last week when I was driving back to Kuching from Sematan after attending a 5-day training course. I was trying to get back as soon as I could because I'm missing my nephew and nieces, and I wanna see them before I fly off to KL. Me being me, I ignored the fact that the road was slippery due to rain, and cruised into a blind corner too fast too furious. Next thing I know, I lost control of the car, skidded down the bend, spun around twice before flying off the highway and crashing into a ditch. Funny thing was, I distinctively remembered that during that moment, everything sorta was happening in slow motion. Right before my car skidded off the path, I remember thinking to myself, "Hmmm... this is gonna cost me a lotta money!" It's a miraculous stroke of luck that I actually managed to survive the car crash unharmed. In a situation like this, I could easily have been killed by an oncoming traffic or get knocked out on impact. My seatbelt literally saved my life, and I came out of the car wreck unscathed. Anyway, my car is now in the workshop after raking up RM4,000 in repair bills. My front bumper suffered a big dent, my two front tyres bursted and I'm sure the wheel alignment is all out of whack. The tow truck charged me RM300 to haul my vehicle 50km back to Kuching and I have to pay another RM300 in police summons. Good thing I have insurance to soften the financial impact. The moral of the story is: buy insurance.Blog Plug of the Day: kennysia.com supports our Olympic cyclist Josiah Ng for the win in Beijing 2008. The Aftermath Of MTV Asia Awards 2008 Still reeling from the excitement of the MTV Asia Awards this past weekend. Although I did not get to watch the show inside the live arena, there are still plenty of moments of highlights for me. The MTV Asia Awards definitely tops the list of the most memorable events I attended this year. Here are some more photos I did not managed to post up during my 7-hour-long live blogging on Saturday. Apparently there were two Red Carpets. One for VIPs to go front of house, and the other for artistes that goes backstage. We were waiting at the VIP Red Carpet for over an hour before we realised that it was unusually quiet for an international awards show, so I rushed to the correct Red Carpet 15 minutes after it started. The Jabberwockeez. I got their name wrong the first time because to be honest, I've never even heard of them! They're a dance crew from the US who won a dance contest, and now they get to travel the world attending awards shows like these. VJ Mike doing the Red Carpet with two lovelies. Oh how I wish to be in his shoes one day. Without a doubt, the biggest name on the Red Carpet is The Pussycat Dolls. They received the biggest cheer from the crowd, and deservingly so. No, the police makcik on the left is NOT a Pussycat Doll. The lead Pussycat Nicole Scherzinger pimping it for MTV. Immediately following the five-member all-female band from the US, is Super Junior, the eight-member all-boy band from Korea. The girls are all going nuts over them. Why lah do girls like pretty boys so much. This is Super Junior, grabbing an imaginary boob. I wonder, when Super Junior eventually get to like, 70 years old, are they gonna change their name to Super Seniors? Hmmm. MTV fans on the other side of the barricade. You guys really made my day lah. I was there to snap photos for kennysia.com, but these guys spotted me and started chanting my name! It was an awesomely kick-ass moment for me, because I don't get acknowledged like that very often. Somemore so many stars were there to outshine me. One reader even caught me doing the live-blogging thing on my HP Mini. It was a highlight of my evening but also kinda awkward because I don't know how to react to that. The Click Five came out next. That's when the fans bastardised their hit song Jenny and instead sang, "Kenny, what's the problem?" I know what's the problem. Me not being able to get into the show, that's the problem! HK superstar Karen Mok and US superstar Jared Leto spent at least 20 minutes on the Red Carpet, taking photos and shaking hands with fans. The two hosts received the biggest reaction from the crowd after the Pussycat Dolls. I've always been a fan of 30 Seconds To Mars, the band fronted by Jared Leto, so to be able to watch him in person was a major "fanboy" moment for me. I have always imagined him to be more cool, mysterious and reclusive, suited to the type of angry rock music that he plays. Surprisingly Jared Leto was warm, friendly and very charismatic. No wonder the girls love him. Hong Kong superstar Karen Mok spoke exceptionally good English without that annoying accent that plagued most actors from Hong Kong. She is surprisingly petite. And also very skinny. She is so skinny, she made Cheesie look fat. The most elegantly dressed star on the Red Carpet is British sensation, Leona Lewis. I don't think I remember seeing her at the after party. I think she took the award and left. Irish band The Script was definitely at the after party. Too bad they didn't pick up any award. The Script is not very well-known here, but whilst everyone else were behaving a little full of themselves, The Script vocalist Danny is possibly the most down-to-Earth person among all the international artistes attending the awards. You shall see why later. ;) Singapore's Favourite Artist Stefanie Sun, came bopping down with band Electrico. She also signed my autograph! Panic At The Disco came along with that big bald burly bodyguard of theirs. The bodyguard made his presence felt at the after party, stopping people from getting anywhere close to the stars. Favourite Chinese Artist Lee Yu Chun came, took her award and left. My ex-CHMS No 1 schoolmate Nicholas Teo also came, took his Favourite Malaysian Artist award and left. To be honest, I'm kind upset Nicholas Teo did not acknowledge me eventhough I attempted to speak to him twice. First on the Red Carpet, thenin the Media Room afterwards. I'm not sure if he's pretending not to recognise me or if he really does not remember me, but I think that's the kinda overprotective attitude most Taiwan-based pop artists are expected to have. That's very unfortunate, because it seems to insinuate that pop artists are on one level higher than than normal folks. It's unlike OneRepublic, who have no qualms acting goofy and poking fun at themselves. Personally, I thought the awards show was kinda short. Security stopped checking for passes halfway through and I could sneak in if I want to. I was ready to pack my bags and leave the Media Room, but just when I was about to do so, they abruptly announced the end of the show! It was only 2.5 hours long from start to end! Heck, it was boring as hell being stuck in the Media Room the whole evening while the live show was going elsewhere. Thanks to a certain mythical winged creature, I was lucky enough to get passes to the official after party. There I met beauty queens Adelaine Chin and Levy Li. One is Miss Malaysia Universe 2007 and the other is Miss Malaysia Universe 2008. Since I'm in the middle, does that mean I'm Miss Malaysia Universe 2007.5? I managed to slip into the VVIP lounge. There, I took a photo with Jared Leto, who had a hard time trying to enjoy the party because too many damn people was trying to take photos with him. I spent the rest of the evening pretty much mingling with the usual bunch of people I mingle with in KL. Now, something very juicy happened at the party. See, I've always heard that rock stars always get groupie action whenever they travel abroad, but I never really believe any of that is true. That was, until last Saturday night. I'm not gonna reveal any names because: (a) that girl is a friend of a friend, and (b) I don't wanna jeapordise my chances of going to exclusive parties in the future. Suffice to say, there was some hot and heavy action inside the VVIP lounge at The Coffee Terrace involving a leading member of an overseas band and one of our local chicks! And not just any chick - this one is a pretty damn hot chick! This was what I saw. First, they were sitting on the couch together. They were talking. She was flirtingy stroking his leg with her foot. Then they kissed. Next moment, she was throwing one leg him and they kissed further, passionately, licking her tongue all over him like he's a 7-Eleven Slurpee. Then came the eye-popping moment. This girl literally climbed on top of our international rock star, straddled across his lap and proceeded to suck his brains out! Not them, but you get the idea of how it's like Bear in mind, this was in full view of people around them. Whoever said Malaysian girls are conservative have obviously never been to an MTV Asia Awards after party. ;) I don't think I need to second guess what happened afterwards. All I can say is, I'm sure my eyes are not the only thing that "popped out" that evening. But enough about them. Here's something a lot milder, a lot less scandalous, but still a highlight of the event for me. Earlier I wrote that Danny, vocalist from The Script, is the most down-to-Earth international artiste at the MTV Asia Awards. This is why. I've been kissed, BY A MAN!I think The Dark Knight is cursed. Heath Ledger died shortly after the movie. Next, Christian Bale was arrested for verbally insulting his mom and sister (wtf?). Shortly afterwards, Morgan Freeman got involved in a car accident. Who's next? MTV Asia Awards 2008 LIVE Blogging At kennysia.com Tonight 9:35pm - Show is over! Stefanie Sun won Favourite Singapore Artist. Linkin Park won favourite international artist. Party now. Blog later! 9:15pm - Finally, they're presenting the award for Favourite Artist Malaysia. The nominees are... Faizal Tahir Nicholas Teo Pop Shuvit Dato Siti Nurhaliza And the winner is... NICHOLAS TEO! Kuching pride man, Kuching pride! You did us proud Nicholas. For creating a whole new style of their own, now presenting The Innovation Award . The nominees are... Kayne West Goldfrapp Gwen Stefani Radiohead The winner is... RADIOHEAD! Presenting Breakthrough Artist . The nominees are... Daughtry Leona Lewis Mika OneRepublic The winner is... LEONA LEWIS! 8:50pm - OneRepublic just came and have their photo taken. Now presenting the award for Favourite Artist Indonesia. The nominees are... Andra & The Backbone, Mulan Jameela, Nidji, Yovie & Nuno. And the winner is... Yovie & Nuno! Too bad I never heard of them. NEXT! Presenting Favourite Artist Taiwan. The nominees are... Jolin Tsai Mayday S.H.E Show Lo And the winner is... Show Lo! What a name. To reward the artist with the best music video, presenting Video Star award. The nominees are... 30 Seconds to Mars - A Beautiful Lie Fergie - Clumsy Justice - D.A.N.C.E Panic at the Disco - Nine in the Afternoon And the winner is... 30 Seconds To Mars! 8:20pm - They're presenting the award for Favourite Artist Thailand. The nominees are... Bodyslam Groove Riders K-OTIC TOR+ Saksit And the winner is... TOR+ Saksit! Now they're presenting the award for Favourite Artist Hong Kong. The nominees are... Andy Lau Eason Chan Joey Yung Leo Ku And the winner is... LEO KU! They're presenting the award to recognise best collaboration between two artistes. For Best Hook-up, the nominees are... Avril Lavigne feat. Lil Mama - Girlfriend Beyonce feat. Shakira - Beautiful Liar Rihanna feat. Jay-Z - Umbrella Timbaland feat. OneRepublic - Apologize And the winner is... Timbaland feat. OneRepublic - Apologize! The Script is now performing "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" live. I wish I were in that arena! 7:55pm - Karen Mok was presented with the MTV Asia Inspiration Award to recognise her humanitarian efforts. Ok, I'm sitting here at the designated Photo Room watched the live award show on television for the past one hour. We were told that the winners will come to the Photo Room after they won their award, but so far only the Favourite Artist Mainland China has turned up to have her photo taken. And she doesn't even look happy receiving the award! 7:48pm - They're presenting the award for Favourite Artist Mainland China. The nominees are... The Flowers Lee Yu Chun Wang Feng Yang Kun And the winner is... LEE YU CHUN! Award for the best live concert, Bring Da House Down - The nominees are... Christina Aguilera - Back To Basics Asia Tour Linkin Park - Linkin Park Asia Tour Muse - Asia Tour Black Eyed Peas - Black Blue and You Tour And the winner is... MUSE! Panic At The Disco grabbed the edc Style Award. 7:43pm - Presenting Favourite Artist Korea. The nominees are... Big Bang Girls Generation Super Junior Wonder Girls And the winner is... SUPER JUNIOR! The Click Five has also won The Knockout Award. I'm guessing it's some sorta appreciation award. 7:20pm - These ones are for you Diana! Panic At The Disco, led by frontman Brendon Urine Urie. The Script, known for the song "The Man Who Can't Be Moved." 7:00pm - Finally I got a breather from the crowd! The main event is about the start, and I'm having lunch in the press lounge right now. A few more photos from the red carpet that has just ended. One Republic stopped and stared. Kuching's very own Nicholas Teo. So ironic. Fifteen years ago, if I wanted to see Nicholas Teo, all I gotta do is walk across the next classroom. Now if I want to see Nicholas Teo, I have to squeeze among the press to get to the red carpet. Stefanie Sun, nominated for favourite Singapore artiste. Karen Mok and Jared Leto, the two hosts for the evening. 6:00pm - Nicole Scherzinger signing an autograph for me. And here's her autograph! The scribbling underneath her is by another Pussycat Doll. Neh, the less famous one. 5:58pm - The Pussycat Dolls! 5:47pm - Leona Lewis in the house! 4:38pm - The Jabbawookiez has arrived the Red Carpet. 3:38pm - The red carpet area, before the invasion of media, screaming fans and glamourous celebs. I'm a little upset because I am denied access to the actual awards show. I only managed to get access to the red carpet and photo room, which on the bright side, is better than nothing I guess. Caught a glimpse of OneRepublic rehearsing "Stop And Stare" in the Arena of Stars. Security promptly chased me out 2 minutes later. 2:34pm - The media and mosh-pitters are gathering right now to collect their passes. JoyceTheFairy, Jason Goh, Michael Yip and Liang are here as well. The mosh pitters are practising their cheering, screaming their lungs out. Rumour has it that there was a mass walkout staged by the local media during the press conference yesterday due to unfair treatment by the organisers. 1:24pm - I'm here at Genting to attend the MTV Asia Awards 2008. I will be trying something new tonight. During the MTV Asia Awards, I will be blogging LIVE from the scene. This is how my equipment is hooked up for the job: the HP Mini connected to the HTC Touch Diamond, accessing the world wide web with Maxis 3G. Beginning 6pm tonight, kennysia.com will be updated regularly with photos from the scene and winner announcements every few minutes. It is my first attempt at live blogging. If all goes well, you'll be reading exclusive live coverage on what is going on at the awards ceremony, right here on kennysia.com, before they're even being published anywhere else. This is not the end of my entry. Check back regularly for updates later. :) Favourite Artist Philippines - The nominees are... Chicosci Sandwich Spongecola Urbandub Favourite Artist Singapore - The nominees are... Electrico JJ Lin Stefanie Sun Tanya Chua Stefanie Sun Favourite International Artist in Asia - The nominees are... Avril Lavigne Fergie Justin Timberlake Linkin Park Linkin Park -->This is a live blog entry. Check back regularly for frequent updates. A Photo Essay On The Chelsea Malaysian Tour So Chelsea F.C. pretty much came, kicked our boys' asses and left. Without boring you with too much text, here's a quick review of their time here in Malaysia. On Monday, I interviewed Chelsea's reserve goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini. It was an nerve-wrecking experience for me, because I was only told last minute about the interview and didn't have much time to prepare for any questions. Security was extremely tight. I was shoved into a room together with three journalists from other media. Carlo's publicist accompanied him and instructed us to take turns asking him one question each. I'm guessing the other journalists present were serious people from serious sports magazines, because throughout the whole interview, they kept asking him boring questions that everybody know the answers to. Questions like "What are your aims this season?" (to win), or "If given a chance, would you play for other clubs?" (yes, if the money is right) I was sitting there thinking, "Why so serious?" After some initial easy-going questions to warm up, I decided to lighten the mood by asking him a slightly more fun question. This was given to me by a kennysia.com reader. I asked Carlo, "Is it true that footballers are banned from having sex before a big match?" He shook his head and refused to answer. Carlo Cudicini snubbed me! Never mind, so I asked him another question. "In your long career, have you ever been offered a bribe to throw away a match?" SNUBBED. AGAIN. Watch how the Chelsea goalkeeper reacted to my inappropriate questions So that was my lousy interview with Carlo Cudicini. I suck big time interviewing famous people. Later in the afternoon, I hopped over to the adidas store in Pavilion where a yet-to-be-known football player was to make an in-store appearance and sign autographs. It was meant to be an exclusive event reserved for invited guests only. But of course, word got around easily and before you know it, there was CHAOS outside of the adidas store. Something funny happened here while I was there. A kennysia.com reader in the crowd spotted me and asked me to sign him an autograph. I obliged. Thinking I was some kinda big shot, the girl next to him also asked me for an autograph. Then, just as she was passing her pen to me, I overheard her asking loudly, "Actually who is this Kenny Sia har?" Before you knew it, close to 20 people who most likely don't even know who the hell Kenny Sia is were shoving their pens in my face, frantically asking me to sign autographs. I promptly walked away as fast as I could. But it was so nice pretending to be a celebrity for just one second. Here are the real local celebs: Christien New, Ninie and Kevin Zahri. After my initial disappointment with Carlo, I was surprised when the mysterious Chelsea F.C. player who turned up at adidas was none other than... MICHAEL BALLACK! "What's the fuss?" "Blueh." Finally, a superstar footballer! Too bad, security was once again as tight as a fish's arse. We queued up like schoolchildren, moving quickly and was awarded with Michael Ballack's holy scribbling. This is Lavin Seow holding up her Ballack autograph. And that is Daphne Iking in the background. I know they're hot, but don't even think about it guys. Those two are married moms! Immediately after Ballack's in-store appearance at adidas, we headed off to the official Chelsea training session. David drove me from Pavilion in Bukit Bintang to Shah Alam Stadium, which took us nearly TWO freaking hours thanks to KL's peak-hour traffic. It's interesting to watch the waay professional footballers train. They closed off half the pitch, split into the team into two and played a regular match. Despite it being just training, them footballers were totally into it. "Where's the ball?" Halfway through Chelsea's football training, suddenly it looks as if they were dancing. "Yea baby, I think I can dance." "May I have this dance?" "He hits the floor!" "Next thing you know!" "Shawty got low, low... very low." The training session was one of the rare chances I get to take photos of the Chelsea players really close. Ivanovic tackles Ben Sahar Di Santo. Frank Lampard playing with his ball. The players after their training. 29 July 2008, the main event: Chelsea F.C. vs Malaysian Selection. It was pretty clear from the start who is gonna win this match. This is Chelsea Football Club's super-long bench. And this, is Malaysia's bench. *cues cricket sounds* Where the hell is everyone? What ever happened to Malaysia Boleh! The match was not quite the walkover everyone had expected. Considering Chelsea's previous matches in the Asian tour was 4-0 and 7-0, I think our boys put up a damn good fight against The Blues. Deco trying to find an opening in Malaysia's strong defence. Joe Cole attempting a goal for Chelsea. Our boy shocked at the size of Lampard's Lam Pa. At the end of the first half, the score was Chelsea 1 - Malaysia 0. Deco heading back to the locker room during half-time. Luckily Deco is not from Kuching. In Hokkien, "Deco" means "underwear". It was half-time. Unfortunately, we did not have sexy cheerleaders or Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson entertaining us during this interval. Instead, we were treated to the beautiful views of footballers doing their stretching. Holy cow, that's Super Mario! Have you called Mohan yet? At the opening of the second-half of the match, things started to get pretty rough. There were a lot of aggressive tackling, shirt-tugging, "accidental" punchs in the face and various other fouls committed. All in all, I must say my first live football match was an entertaining one. The energy being part of over 55,000 screaming fans was just unbelievable. As one, we collectively cheered when someone scored a goal, and drew a heavy sigh when someone narrowly missed. It was definitely an experience not to forget. Sadly, at the end of the 90th minute, our team has to face the reality of losing 2-0 to Chelsea. I shall conclude this photo essay with a topless photo of captain John Terry. This, my friend, is the difference between someone who plays football. And two people who don't.AD: My pal and noted wedding photographer, Kid Chan, has teamed up with various experts in the wedding industry to organise A Weekend With Kid Chan & Friends. This is a once-off event where couples are invited to mingle and chat with professionals in the areas of photography, flowers, décor, cakes, stationery, favours, gowns, suits and event planning. Up to 50% discounts on wedding photography packages will also be offered. Click for details. Chelsea Football Club Is In Malaysia Finally, Chelsea Football Club has arrived in Malaysia! A lot of readers have been anxiously awaiting for my interview with Luiz Felipe Scolari. The thing is, I have been unable to get on the phone with Chelsea coach, and he has yet to even reply my e-mail interview! Bugger Scolari, kennysia.com too small fry for you is it!? Doesn't matter, because there are still plenty of things to get excited about. Earlier today, 24 players from Chelsea's first team took the chartered MAS flight from Macau to KL. Among the elite 24 are Chelsea and England captain John Terry. Scolari's first catch for Stamford Bridge, Deco. German national captain, Michael Ballack. Star midfielder, Frank Lampard, one of England's highest-paid football players. Also in town are of course, Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech, winger Joe Cole and defender Ashley Cole. Notably missing from the 24 is notorious troublemaker Didier Drogba. Maybe he already got a red card before he even boarded the plane to KL. The Blues are here to play against Malaysia in Shah Alam Stadium this coming Tuesday at 8:45pm. It's a rare oppportunity for us to witness one of EPL's Big Four in action before the official EPL season starts next month. Word has it that exclusive official merchandise will be specially flown in for sale on match day. ;) Today (Monday) from 4pm to 5pm, the team will be at the adidas store in Pavilion KL for autograph signing session. Later in the evening at 6:30pm, the team will move to Shah Alam Stadium where they'll be doing their warm up for their upcoming match. Those with the training passes I gave out earlier will be able to meet and greet the players after they have finished. And of course, tomorrow night is Chelsea's match day against Malaysia. Somehow I get the feeling that there will be more blue shirts in the audience than yellow. Poor Malaysian footballers. kennysia.com is one of the official media partners for the Samsung Chelsea Asia Tour 2008. Last night, I attended the press conference at the Palace of the Golden Horses. Luiz Felipe Scolari was there, and he fielded questions from the hundreds of journalists from various news media in attendance. Most of the journalists there asked football-related questions, like "What's your strategy against Malaysia F.C.?" or "Why do you pick this player over that player?" When I finally managed to grab hold of the mic, I seized the opportunity and asked Scolari a non-football related question. "Mr Scolari, I noticed that you speak many different languages. Have you picked up the Malaysian language and can you say to us a few words?" This was how he responded. Next, I'm gonna teach him say KNNCCB. Thanks everyone for the show of concern after I posted about my car accident on my Pacmee. Well, I'm still in one piece although my car suffered dents. It could've been worse, and I could've died if it weren't for my seatbelt. So buckle up, boys and girls. I Live For Moments Like This She's grown up so much! I love my baby niece.Still extremely busy, but looking forward to the Chelsea game this Tuesday! I'm A Bear, A Bunny, A Butterfly, A Bug No updates because I'm doing too many things at the same time. Be right back.These Mamee Slrrp ads are really funny! Kuching Cat Museum The Kuching Cat Museum is located inside the bizzare-looking UFO-shaped DBKU building in North Kuching. Most people pass by this building on their way to Santubong without bothering to drop by. It's quite unfortunate, because cat lovers would find this place a very interesting tourist attraction. Besides, how could anyone not love pussies? ;) The entrance to the cat museum is a gigantic fugly cat. To enter, you literally walk in through the cat's mouth. Inside the cat musuem, there are many different kinds of cat. Hungry cat. Serious cat. Horny cats. Cow cat. Occasionally, you might even see a Kenny Cat. Inside the cat museum, there is also an exhibition of a cat's grave. A grave for a pet cat. Awww... That would have been a very sad and sombre affair. If it weren't for the description on the grave stone. The pussy is called Dick!I will be taking part in two marathons this year. The first is Borneo International Marathon at Kota Kinabalu this 12th October. I'll be taking part in the 21km half-marathon category. Next, the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon on the 7th December. This will be my third 42km full marathon, thus fulfilling my goal of running a marathon in a one new city every year. :) Malaysia To Export TV Shows to South Korea This was in the news not too long ago. Apparently, some station in Korea wanted to import our local TV shows to their country. The information minister is very happy because he hoped Malaysia can do to Korea what Winter Sonata did to Malaysia. Now, I'm all for exporting Malaysian-made content to the world. I think we have pretty creative people in the entertainment industry and I'm sure we'd be able to come up with something that Koreans would like. Besides, how difficult is it to write a storyline to cater for Korean tastes anyway? All you need to do is make sure someone cries every 5 minutes. The hardest part, I think, is finding the type of actors that Koreans would enjoy watching. We all know that Koreans are very used to their male actors looking like sissy girls and their female actresses looking like ghosts. Finding suitable actors for the job in Malaysia is definitely not gonna be easy. Surely, it is not gonna work if our version of Winter Sonata looks like this. Unless we wanna give them horror shows lah.Blog Plug of the Day: AnonymousCelebrity, the blog of a supposed Hollywood A-list celebrity, IS BACK. You can suspend disbelief, or you can take what she wrote with a big grain of salt. All I can say is, this time round, she's dropped a very big hint on her supposed identity. Can you guess who she is? How People 'Eat A Chip like Kenny Sia' I am constantly amazed by the creativity of kennysia.com readers. A few months ago, I found myself eating potato chips, soaking in toilet waste-infused river water, filming for a TV commercial that was to be on broadcasted on television screens across Malaysia. It was the first time ever a company has engaged a Malaysian blogger to appear in their TV ad, and I am super honoured to be part of that. Now, as cliche as it may sound, kennysia.com is nothing without the readers. Which is why to celebrate my 3 seconds of fame on TV, I pitched an idea to Mister Potato for a very special online contest to reward you, my readers. Three weeks ago, I put the call out to my kennysia.com readers to take part in the 'Eat A Chip Like Kenny Sia' contest. The grand prize was: (1) A holiday for two to Bangkok (2) Me as your personal tour guide (3) A generous amount of shopping money (4) An everlasting friendship with Kenny Sia Yes, this is a contest like no other, because this one has my friendship on the booty as the big prize. To take part in the contest, all that needs to be done is to take a photo of yourself imitating my part in the TV ad. The contest has ended and the response was jaw-droppingly overwhelming. I was expecting just a simple "jump and bite" picture. Something like this. Instead, what I got in my inbox was utter shock and horror. ;) The extent that people go to abuse someone just to win themselves a free trip to Bangkok is just ridiculous. First there was Rachel Liew's sister abuse. Save petrol, use Mister Potato Then there was Tee Kean Lam's baby abuse. Jesselyn Lam brought out her tortoise to her backyard to abuse. Her tortoise bears an uncanny resemblance to Kenny Loh Chan Wai carved out a potato, stick some eyes onto it and abuse. And JC Veaghen took out her Spongebob plush toy to abuse. Then there were many good ones who took the slightly more "unconventional" approach. Susan Low's baby girl is too cute not to post up. Fiona Lim thought Mister Potato was a Mexican singer and dressed up as one Pirated version of Mister Potato Douglas Lim got caught with his "Kenny Sia" expression when he violated the fundamental rule of cleanliness in his science laboratory. Joshua Chng gave his boy Mister Potato chips as motivation to do sit-ups. Rachel Beh made good use of her double-taping skills to create this Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Kung Fu chip moment. Then there's one who thought all I wanted was a hot chick as my travel companion. Instead of sending me a photo of her eating Mister Potato, she sent me a photo of herself posing like this. Trust me, I was very tempted to just put her through as the winner. There were many very good entries, and I had a difficult time short-listing those few for the sponsor. Tong Ching Yee's "Spud Lovers" I'm sure the head honchos at Mister Potato knew the stakes was high. They probably sat down in one of their top level board meetings (along with their Mexican-looking moustached mascot), examining every single photo, until they eventually chose one person as the winner. Any the winner is... Joshua Chng with his Mister Potato motivational sit up photo! Congratulations! Joshua will now get to bring a friend to travel with me on an all-expense paid trip to Bangkok, Thailand! For all the short-listed entries of the 'Eat A Chip Like Kenny Sia' contest, go to the Mister Potato website and click on Mister Potato Goodies WY Leong's Pac Chip As much as I appreciate the contribution of all readers, unfortunately there is room for only one winner. There were many who went through extreme lengths taking part in this contest but didn't managed get anything. Like Yee Bing, who decided to eat the chip from... ...somebody's feet. Sorry you didn't win. class="statcounter"> counter">I have almost completely given away all 44 of my match tickets to watch Chelsea FC vs Malaysia. Winners will be contacted soon. But if you missed out, don't fret. There are still many other bloggers giving tickets away if you ask them really nicely and say "please." Or in Cheesie's case, say "cheese!" Rainforest World Mud Festival I hate to be honest. Pinkpau was not happy But the Rainforest World Music Festival was a sore disappointment this year. I didn't mind that the ticket price has gone up from RM60 two years ago to RM90 this year. The major problem everyone had was that the venue was awfully muddy due to heavy rainfall on the first day. It's difficult to get into the mood when your ankles were immersed in four inches of soggy wet mud. The organisers tried alleviating the problem by covering the surface with wooden saw crumbs, to no avail. Then there's the problem of hooligans. I'm all for partying hard and going crazy at events such as these, but terrorising other revellers by throwing mud at them is definitely NOT cool. It didn't help that the mud has a disgusting stench that smells like a yoghurt mixture of vomit, sweat and somebody's severe case of diarrhoea. That being said, the music on display was once again quality stuff. I especially enjoyed the skilful percussion acts from India and Japan. Those ethnic musical instruments are all very unique. And then there's this guy from Congo. "Do you want to play with my instrument?"I am going to the MTV Asia Awards! Who's gonna be there? The Pussycat Dolls, One Republic, Leona Lewis, Jared Leto, Karen Mok, Panic At The Disco. All confirmed. Sorry, tickets aren't for sale and I have none to give out. If you want one, perhaps you can get lucky this Satuday night (19/7) at the "Mosh Pit Auditions", 6pm - 8pm at Zouk. ;) kennysia.com Kuching Food Awards 2008 Winners Ten categories, seven days and two inches added to my waistline later, it's time to announce the winners for the 2008 kennysia.com Kuching Food Awards. Here, kennysia.com stands up and takes his hat off to the best of the best local fare. These awards applaud not just to the obvious, but also to those quietly making a difference. And of course, I encourage everyone to try the good food listed here. For visitors to Kuching, not to worry. The location of all the winners are noted on my handy Google Maps application. 10. Best Fine Dining Winner: The Steakhouse, Hilton Hotel Kuching. If you want to dine at The Steakhouse, be sure to bring along your wallet, an arm, a leg and your first-born child. Because that's about how much you'll be expecting to pay for a meal over there. Dare I say though, it was absolutely worth it. Fine-dining is never meant to be a cheap affair. I dined at The Steakhouse once only on Chinese New Year's Eve. It's a special occassion so we all thought about splurging a little bit. It was such a fantastic meal, my mouth waters just thinking about it. We had Yee Sang (raw salmon and jelly fish) served in cocktail glasses, chicken consomme in a Chinese teapot, garoupa grilled to perfection and beautifully presented. In terms of visual presentation, it's 10/10. In terms of taste, it's another 10/10. Unfortunately, mathematics tells us 10x10 = 100, and I got the shock of my life when the bill comes up to RM100 per person. Having dined at most of the other finer restaurants around Kuching, I have no doubt in saying that The Steakhouse beats all competition with its boot firmly impaled up their arses. 9. Best Casual Dining Winner: Chef At Home, Lorong Taman Hui Sing 5/6. For first-timers, it is not easy to find the place because there aren't any visible signboards outside the house. Chef At Home is located inside a residential house where the car porch and garden are conveniently converted into an alfresco dining area. It's nice and romantic. Very cozy, and it doesn't cost a bomb. What I like about this place is its range of delectable grills. Their steaks are juicy and their chicken chop are so tender it literally melts in your mouth. You can never go wrong with the meat here. They have quite a sense of humour when it comes to naming their mocktails. This one is called Malaysian Sunrise. Orange juice with grenadine syrup topped up with 7-Up. And this mixture of chocolate milk with sprite is called Michael Jackson. Why? Because it's black and white. 8. Best Food Court Winner: Hui Sing Hawker Centre, Lorong Taman Hui Sing 3. Just across the road from the winner of Best Casual Dining is the winner for Best Food Court in Kuching. Click on map for details on location Hui Sing Hawker Centre is in my books, one of the best local eats in Kuching. Sure, it is not as big as the triple-combo Jalan Song food courts, nor as flash as the brand new Food Avenue in 4th Mile that offers retractable rooftop, projector TV and free WiFi. But what Hui Sing Hawker Centre lacks for in size, it more than make up for in quality. It is here that the delicious White Lady was created, alongside other famous icy delights such as ABC and Matterhorn. These creations are not easily found outside of Kuching, and they are absolutely delightful especially with the hot and humid weather over here. Other dish worth trying in this excellent food court are the pork satays, the fried taugeh noodles with clams, the tomato kueh teow, the sotong kangkung and the curry chicken rice. 7. Best Nightspot Click for map Winner: Mojo, Jalan Abell. While we're still waiting for Zouk and Ministry of Sound to set up a proper nightclub in Kuching (won't happen at least for the next 10 years), Kuching people are still partying their weekends away in pubs. Mojo deserves a big thumbs up for introducing something a bit different to the locals. While Soho gets heavily crowded and overrun by wannabes on weekends, Mojo manages to do their part to keep their customers happy. It is not Velvet Underground of KL, but it's close enough. Funky DJs, plush couches, a proper dance floor and a memorable theme party last Halloween made Mojo officially the coolest place to hang out in Kuching. I'm sure after winning this award, more people will be coming in to further crowd the place. What the Teng brothers need to do next is install more freakin' airconds! 6. Best Place To Have Breakfast Winner: Choon Hui Cafe, Jalan Ban Hock. This legendary establishment has been feeding hungry Kuchingnites for many years. Click on map for details on location Located close to town, right next to Grand Continental Hotel, Choon Hui is as authentic as it can get to a old-fashioned Kuching Chinese-style coffee shop. It is open during breakfast hours only, starting business very early in the morning and finishes around 11am. This is what my typical breakfast at Choon Hui looks like. A bowl of laksa, a roll of popiah, kaya butter toast and a glass of iced coffee served in a Guinness Extra Stout beer mug. You may also order kolo mee, chicken porridge or soft-boiled eggs here. The laksa here is very popular among the locals. In terms of visual presentation I give it a 10/10, though taste-wise it is not the best in Kuching. The popiah served here, on the other hand, is nothing short of perfect. I love how they wrap the vege and crushed peanut so perfectly, it never falls out of place when you take a bite. Make sure you dip it in the sweet sauce. It is mouthwateringly awesome. Even with the mushrooming of newer and trendier kopitiams all around Kuching, Choon Hui has shown no signs of losing its loyal base of customers. Not only is the quality of food here consistent, the people running the shop are all genuinely warm and friendly. Not matter how busy they are, they will smile, joke and make small talks with you even if you're just a total stranger. This is authentic Kuching hospitality at its best. And the best part is? You don't have to pay 10% service charge for it. 5. Best Beverage Winner: Honey Sea Coconut, Ching Chang Drink Stall at Song Kheng Hai Food Court. I love this drink. It's a cool and refreshing concoction of honey and sea coconut, and Ching Chang Drink Stall serves the best version of this drink. The uncle manning this popular stall is also very lame. Order a drink at this stall. If your order comes up to RM1.50, he will come up to you and say, "RM1,500 please!" And he does that EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. 4. Best Chicken Rice Winner: Hainan Street Restaurant, RH Plaza. Hainan Street Restaurant used to operate an outlet along the same stretch of shophouses at Chicking Eating House at Jalan Petanak. Click on map for details on location My office is located around the area so I often eat at both places. It's the same everytime. Chicking will be filled up like crazy and Hainan Street will be dead quiet even during the busiest lunch hour. I have no idea why. My tastebuds tell me the chicken at Hainan Street is more oily, more juicy, more tender and more chock full of flavour of the two. Hainan Street is no longer operating their outlet in Jalan Petanak, but their nice air-conditioned outlet at RH Plaza in BDC is still doing comfortably well. 3. Best Tomato Kueh Teow Winner: Ah Kau Fried Kueh Tiaw/Noodles, Expert Food Court Jalan Song. This is one of my all-time favourite Kuching dish. Click on map for details on location From the picture, it may not look like much. But trust me on this, it tastes better than it looks. A lot better, Many establishments in Kuching serve tomato kueh teow, but none do it as good as this one does. Very rarely will you find one where the tomato-based gravy is cooked and fried to the right amount of flavour. You can literally taste the bite of the tomato on your tongue. Not a lot of people come here for the tomato kueh teow. Actually, if I didn't stumble across this place myself, I wouldn't even know it is capable of serving such a fabulous dish. Ah Kau Fried Kueh Tiaw/Noodles is located in the busy Jalan Song food courts and opens for lunch and dinner only. 2. Best Sarawak Laksa Winner: Golden Arch Garden Laksa, Golden Arch Shopping Mall. The Golden Arch "Shopping Mall" (to use the words loosely) is a dump. Click on map for details on location It is never a "shopping mall" because there's absolutely nothing for you to "shop" over here. There are only two places worth going to in this "shopping mall". First, is Planet Karaoke Pub. The other is Golden Arch Garden Laksa for breakfast, serving possibly the juiciest prawn-iest laksa in the whole of Kuching. The laksa served here skimped on a few basic ingredients (eg eggs, coriander). But every laksa lover knows that the secret of the flavour lies in the gravy. At Golden Arch Garden Laksa, the spiciness of the laksa has the right amount of "oomph". Not too mild until you couldn't taste anything. But not too overwhelming until a pair of hands reaches out from the bowl, grabs you by the collar and gives you a tight punch in the face. 1. Best Kolo Mee Winner: Min Joo Cafe, corner of Carpenter St and Bishopgate. Let me teach you how to order the best tasting kolo mee you could possibly find in Kuching at Min Joo Cafe. Click on map for details on location When you rock up at the coffee shop on the corner of Carpenter Street and Bishopgate, 99% of the time this old and rundown establishment will be packed with customers filled to brim. So if you wanna taste good food, you have no choice but to stand on the side waiting for your turn. So you stand there and wait. And wait. And wait some more. 30 minutes later, a customer leaves and you sit down at his place, sharing the table with two other strangers. A loud and feisty uncle yells at you, "It's like that over here. Everyone sits with everyone!" And then you continue waiting. And wait. You wait, because there's nobody coming to take your order! So another 30 minutes later, the loud feisty uncle comes by and take your order. You already know what you want. There is only one dish here that kept all the customers come back for more. It's their signature kolo mee with mixed pork soup. So you made your order with the uncle. And guess what? You continue to wait! Very very patiently wait. 15 minutes later, your order finally arrives. It's a bowl of kolo mee with nothing but fried shallots on top. A moment afterwards, a bowl of soup with all the spare parts of the pork arrives. One spoonful later, you immediately understand why us locals keep going back to that unhygenic Grade C hole to wait another one hour plus in that stupid queue. Hungry yet? Man-gasm Alert: Tony Fernandes commented on my blog! "6 years I have asked for Kuching-Singapore , KK-Singapore, Penang-Singapore and more flights for KL-Singapore. Why should we not get them? Why can Firefly fly from Subang and we can't. It's great MAS competes with us but notice the fares where Airasia doesn't fly on." Doing Karen Cheng This is a story about Karen Cheng. Karen Cheng is a Perth mother of two who runs a popular blog at karencheng.com.au. Karen has a typical mummy blog where she shares snippets of her life, covering topics such as women's lifestyle, parenting and fashion. Karen Cheng also has a very peculiar habit. Whenever Karen is dressed up nice, she will go in front of a large mirror, whip out her digital camera, snap a photo of herself in the mirror, and then upload it onto her blog. 99% of the time, her camera will be fully visible, her eyes glancing downwards towards her camera, and her head tilted slightly to the left as she does that. She does this so often, her readers even have a name for it. They dub it... "The Karen Cheng pose". One day, Karen received an email from one of her readers. The reader told her that they were going out for dinner when spotted this large mirror. Since they were all dressed up nice, they decided to take a photo of themselves doing "The Karen Cheng Pose". SariPartyGirl doing the Karen Cheng pose A few days later, she received a similar e-mail from another reader. And then another. And another. Without even realising, Karen has stumbled across a winning formula. Girls + Nice Dress + Self-Photography = Big Internet Hit. Before you know it, a Facebook group was created, 1,104 people joined, 664 people posted photos of themselves doing "The Karen Cheng Pose", TVs, newspapers and magazines go crazy over it, and a full-blown internet phenomenom has well and truly taken off. Karen was on holiday in Singapore last weekend with her husband to celebrate her 30th birthday. Since she has many Singaporean readers, Karen came up with this a crazy idea to combine camwhoring with charity. Her plan is to get everyone together at one place, do the "Karen Cheng" pose with THE Karen Cheng in front of a mirror, and get each person to donate SGD$10 towards the Singapore Red Cross. Coincidentally, I was also in Singapore during the same time to attend my high school friend's wedding, so after some e-mailing each other, I decided to pop into her private function when I was in town. Waddya know? Being a mostly girls event, there were babes. Doing the Karen Cheng with Karen Cheng More babes. Doing the Karen Cheng with Sher and Huiwen And even a dog. Everyone was dressed up really nice to the point that it was like we're doing a fashion show. The best part is? I was one of the very few guys there. So this is what we do. I was the luckiest man on Earth for 15 seconds. Fun and games aside, Karen's little gathering did end up going to a good cause. It was just a short two-hour thing, but over 100 people turned up for the event and raised in excess of SGD$2,000 (RM4,600) for Singapore Red Cross. So this is a story of a 30-year-old mother of two from Perth, who loves fashion and camwhoring so much that she unwittingly started an internet trend, brought together many people, and ended up doing something very good for charity. And the reason I'm writing about this? Well, with so much drama and crap going on in blogging lately, I think we all deserve a little happy story. :)As a prelude to Rainforest World Music Fest, SingleTrackMind is doing a mini beach concert with a couple of local bands at the Damai Beach Resort, Kuching. Worth checking out if you enjoy live music. Click here for info. A Shot At Scolari The fever has barely died down weeks after Spain became Euro 2008 champion, and already football fans have something to look forward to. One of the biggest clubs in the English Premier League, Chelsea Football Club is coming to Malaysia. All the stars: Michael Ballack, Ashley Cole, Joe Cole, John Terry, newly-signed Deco are all likely to coming to Shah Alam Stadium as part of their pre-season Asian tour. And here's the kicker (no pun intended). ProEvents, the company responsible for bringing Chelsea to Malaysia is asking me to speak to all-time legendary football manager and Chelsea's new coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari. My phone interview with Big Phil is scheduled to be on the 21st July, when he brings The Blues to Guangzhou, China to play against the Chinese national team. This to me, is an opportunity of a lifetime. It is not gonna be easy interviewing the legend who has been in football for so long, and done so much, including bringing Brazil the World Cup. How am I gonna start the interview? Which is why I am putting the call out there to all kennysia.com readers. Please help me interview the Chelsea coach Felipe Scolari. Leave me a comment with your questions. On the 21st July, when I get my chance to talk to Felipe Scolari. I'll ask the question on your behalf. As a token of my appreciation, 12 of you who asked the best questions will be rewarded with two match tickets to watch Chelsea vs Malaysia at the Shah Alam Stadium on the 29th July. So here's your chance to ask Scolari everything that you ever wanted to know about him, football, or the EPL in general. You can ask him anything you want. Which player does Scolari wanna recruit the most? Why do football coaches do that funny dance everytime their player made a mistake? And why do football players always run away so fast after they scored a goal? Is it because when they SCORE, they must LARI? Is that why his name is also SCOLARI? Please help me interview Scolari. You ask the questions, I'll pass it on and I'll give you some free match tickets. Go on, the floor is yours!I've been given 10 pairs of match tickets and 30 pairs of training passes to giveaway when Chelsea F.C. comes to town. To win the tix, just write a blog entry about Chelsea's tour to Malaysia, e-mail me at contest@kennysia.com and I'll give them to ya for free! Ten Reasons Why Najib vs Anwar Is Like Dawn Yang vs Xiaxue By now, everyone should be aware of the highly entertaining fued between Singapore's queens of controversies Dawn Yang and Xiaxue. Everyone should also be aware of the dramatic battle of one upmanship between our future prime minister Najib Razak, and our other future prime minister Anwar Ibrahim. I'm not sure if I'm the only person who notices this. But... don't you think the fight between Najib Razak and Anwar Ibrahim is so similar to the fight between Dawn Yang and Xiaxue? Here, let me explain. Najib = Dawn Yang Anwar = Xiaxue What? You mean you haven't noticed? As glaringly different as these people may be, they actually have a lot more in common than we give them credit for. Let's look at the long list of similarities of these two "almost equally high profile" bitchfights, shall we? Xiaxue Vs Dawn YangAnwar Vs NajibXiaxue and Dawn Yang are two big time bloggers in Singapore.Anwar and Najib are two big time politicians, both of whom are deputy prime ministers predicted to become Malaysia's future Prime Minister. Dawn Yang has a hate site, authored by Dawn Wayang.Najib also has a hate site, authored by Raja Petra. Xiaxue accused Dawn Yang of lying about plastic surgery.Anwar accused Najib of playing a role in the Altantuya murder case. Dawn Yang vehemently denied allegations of plastic surgery.Najib vehemently denied having ever met Altantuya. Xiaxue insists on calling Dawn Yang a liar.Anwar insists on calling Najib a liar. Dawn Yang used her manager Noel to make Xiaxue shut up.Najib used Saiful (or more accurately, Saiful's ass) to make Anwar shut up. Xiaxue refused to shut up.Anwar refused to shut up. Instead, Xiaxue used the increased publicity to introduce to everyone... Mr R!Instead, Anwar used the increased publicity to introduce to everyone... Mr Balasubramaniam! It was then that an explosive bombshell was dropped. It was then that an explosive bombshell was dropped. Shock! Horror! Dawn Yang went to Bali on Valentine's Day with Mr R!Shock! Horror! Our deputy prime minister likes anal sex! Now don't you agree they are just soooo similar?I want that HP Mini leather case for my laptop! Nomination For kennysia.com Kuching Food Awards 2008 A year ago, I wrote a entry titled the kennysia.com Kuching Food Awards. It was meant to be a list of what I personally think are the best food around Kuching, Sarawak. In the end, it turned into a topic of wild debate and controversy. Although there are many visitors to Kuching who found that list useful to find good food here, there are also many Sarawakians who hated me with vengeance because I erroneously left out a lot of good recommendations on my list. See? Even Nicholas Teo agrees The kennysia.com Kuching Food Awards honours the best-tasting food you'll ever lay your tastebuds on in Cat City. But it was last updated one and a half years ago. Since then many new eateries have popped up all over the place. Good places go bad, bad places go bust, and big ass franchise chains from KL have taken over the casual-dining scene in Kuching by storm. Yet, even with the unforgiving assault of the Starbucks, the Secret Recipes, the Sushi Kings and the Kenny Rogers over the past 18 months, I believe there's still a place for good ol' cheap hawker food in the unpretentious side of Kuching. Carrying a RM3,000 LV bag to queue up for half an hour just to eat a RM4 bowl of noodle. Only in Kuching. So here's the thing. I am a proud Kuching boy, and I stand by my belief that my hometown has the BEST hawker food scene in the whole of Malaysia. (Sorry Penang and Ipoh, its our time to shine.) In two weeks time, Pussytown will be inundated with thousands of visitors from all over the world descending here for the Rainforest World Music Festival. I'd love to have everyone enjoy themselves at the music fest, but I also want everyone to go home at least 2kg heavier after sampling all the good hawker food in my hometown. Forget The Miele Guide. It is worthless. They have included Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore, but tragically it does not even include a single Kuching eatery on their list. That's the reason why I'm compiling a fresh new list of the kennysia.com Kuching Food Awards for 2008, and I'm seeking help from everyone in Kuching to nominate their favourite outlets to include in the list. Over the next one week, I'll go on a food-tasting mission all over the city. Right before the visitors come down for Rainforest, I shall reveal which eatery is worthy enough to be on the prestigious winners list of the kennysia.com Kuching Food Awards. I'll be the judge with a few friends, and I'll be as impartial as possible. Therefore any attempts to bribe with food, cash, hot chicks or otherwise will not be entertained. Ok lah, maybe I'll accept the hot chicks. Here are the categories up for nomination. 1. Best Kolo Mee Past winners: KY Cafe, Sekama Road; and Ah Ping Mee Stall, Siang Siang Foodcourt Tabuan Jaya 2. Best Sarawak Laksa Past winners: Madam Tang's, Petanak Road; and Chong Choon Cafe, Abell Road. 3. Best Tomato Kueh Teow Past winner: Hap Hap Hin, Kenyalang Market. 4. Best Chicken Rice Past winner: Good Thumb Food Centre, Dogan Road. 5. Best Beverage Past winner: Teh C Special, Fresh Food Court 7th Mile; Iced Milo Dinosaur, Mambo King at Travilion which has since closed down. 6. Best Place To Have Breakfast Past winner: Kaya & Toast, several outlets throughout town. 7. Best Nightspot Past winners: Links, Kuching Civic Centre; and BarZing, Travilion. 8. Best Food Court Past winner: Jalan Song food courts 9. Best Casual Dining No past winners, but basically casual-dining places are one step above hawker food centres, one class below fine-dining. Prices are usually around RM15 per meal. Sushi King, Bella Italia, Chicago 7 and so on would fall under this category. 10. Best Fine Dining No true fine-dining exists in Kuching, so let's just assume this refers to the type of restaurant you'll bring your partner to on a romantic Valentine's date. Prices in this category of restaurants are usually more than RM20 per meal. Past winners: Bla Bla Bla, Jalan Tabuan; Magenta, Jalan Nanas. So, who should be on my list this year? Nominate by leaving a comment. Winners shall be revealed next week! I know Malaysian Dreamgirl is over a long time ago, but have anyone seen this MDG Simulation Game? It is the most amusingly hilarious thing ever created! The Best Tax Advice Ever Like a typical Malaysian, I submitted my income tax forms on the very last day of the deadline. In total, I have to pay several hundred ringgit in taxes to LHDN, so now the government can use my money to build more SMART tunnels. My income situation didn't use to be that complicated, so prevously I got someone else to do it for me. This year is the first year I had to submit my tax declaration as a business owner. And I also took a shot at filling out my tax forms completely on my own. It's not easy, mind you. It's almost like we're expected have a degree in taxation to be able to fill out these tax forms. As if it was not daunting enough that a first timer like me had to understand all the different tax laws, LHDN had to make my life more difficult by publishing the forms in BAHASA MALAYSIA. Being new to this, I was obviously blown away by the various jargons and ended up as confused as a thirsty baby in a tittie bar. Every few minutes, I have to stop and search for answers online. It was during one of my searches that I suddenly stumbled upon this gem on Yahoo Answers. That my friend, the BEST advice ever given.The Miss Malaysia World pageant is gruesomely diffferent this year. Instead of voting your favourite girl in, you eliminate others by 'killing' them on their website. Remember that leggy girl in the short white bunny outfit from the Nuffnang Wild Live Party? Her name is Germaine and she's one of the contestants as well. ADV: Education Is Not For Profit My father never had a university degree. He didn't even have a college diploma for that matter. No, it wasn't because he didn't care about education. My father was one of the strongest advocates of higher education when he was alive. In his high school, he graduated at the top of his class. He was yearning so much to enter university, yet he never had the opportunity to do so. My grandparents' kampung in the 1950s It was unfortunate that back in his days, there were no universities or colleges in Sarawak. Back then, the only option to further your education was to travel to big cities like Kuala Lumpur or Singapore and live there for 3 years before you could come back with that elusive piece of paper. Coming from a poor family background and as the eldest child in the family with 4 siblings to support, leaving home for studies was simply too much a financial burden for him to carry. Growing up, my father always emphasized to me how important it was to complete my university education. He knew that he had to work twice as hard to get to where he was. He knew that getting a university degree would put us head and shoulders ahead of everyone else. That's why he spent a whole heap of money to send his three kids overseas. It is a financial sacrifice he had to put up with, because he knew that in this day and age it's virtually impossible to survive in a job market without higher education. But times have changed. For one, universities and colleges and "university colleges" have been popping up all over the country left, right and centre. Within a short span of 3 years, I saw no less than FIVE institutions setting up their campuses within Kuching city alone. Families are getting wealthier. Parents can now afford to send their children to not just KL, Singapore or Australia. But to far far far away places like UK, USA and Mars (in the future). But there was also one major change back then compared to now. Education has now become very commercialised. Because there are not enough spaces in public unis to go around, many private education institutions suddenly appeared. These private unis and colleges provide education, but in actual fact they are run very similar to business entities. Students pay school fees. In return, they receive a service in the form education. Yes, just like public unis, these private institutions provide education. But no one can deny that their ultimate objective is to generate profit for their shareholders. You see, everybody wanna make money these days. But what if I told you that there is a private university in Malaysia that is actually NOT FOR PROFIT? Would that be hard to believe? It is not unreal. Such an institution does exist. Malaysia's first and only non-profit private university is Wawasan Open University. Established only less than 2 years ago, the uni is funded not by the government, not by the rakyat's taxes, but instead by charitable trusts, corporations and donations from the public. To start with, a substantial donation was made by the family of Yeap Chor Ee, a banking tycoon who founded COCONUT BANK in Penang. Mr Yeap, now immortalised in the form of a copper statue in front of the Wawasan Open University campus Although Wawasan Open University is officially our 18th university, it functions unlike any traditional learning institutions most people are used to. The university is truly a first of it's kind in this country. Wawasan Open University is an open distance learning university. At a distance learning university, students are not required to physically attend classes. Instead they are expected to learn independantly through study materials provided and using of video-conferencing, instant messaging, online forums, e-mails and phone. If needed, they can look for support or attend regular tutorials which are provided at their regional centres in Penang, Ipoh, Melaka, JB, KL and Bandar Utama. WOU's Penang regional office The one big advantage this form of studies could bring is that working professionals or homemakers might find it easier to fit part-time studies into their schedule. By learning at home, these adult learners can still get a degree without going to classes. The downside is that when it comes to distance-learning, A LOT of self-discipline is required on the part of students. No one is gonna stop you from reading kennysia.com or update your Facebook if you're supposed to be reading your course materials online. But hey, you're the one who's gonna suffer when exams come around! I know. Distance learning have always sounded a bit dodgy, but really, it's just mindless paranoia. If you noticed, traditional universities especially in Malaysia has always been "spoon-feeding" information to students. A lot of students rely way too much a lecturer or a tutor to be physically there for them to learn something. With distance learning, students have to learn on their own. But they're also allowed to make contact with the lecturer or tutor online if they have trouble understanding course material. And this concept have proven very popular overseas. In Wawasan Open University all courses are fully recognised in Malaysia, so there's nothing much to worry about. The most attractive thing about studying at Wawasan Open University is their course fees. The fact that it is non-profit means its fees are significantly cheaper than at other universities. Just to give an example, a typical bachelor's degree in e-Commerce may cost up to RM50,000, while at Wawasan Open University it is around RM17,000. If both can offer you the exact same qualification in the end, which one would you choose? I call Wawasan Open University the AirAsia of university education. It's cheap, it's convenient, it's very accessible because almost everything is done online. Already in their second year of establishment, and the university is offering eleven bachelor's degree programmes in the fields of business and science, as well as ce-MBA and ce-MPA for postgraduate students. More is of course expected to come. The oldest WOU student is 71 years old! Honestly, I love the idea of a non-profit university, I love the concept of self-learning, and Wawasan Open University encapsulates both. True, most Malaysians may not immediately warm up to the idea of an open distance learning university. But I reckon for anyone who have self-discipline, Wawasan Open University is most definitely worth a shot. If there is one university that is able to provide the type of higher education my father was financially deprived of in his younger days, this must be it.The Incredible Hulk was definitely heaps better than Ang Lee's intepretation of the same movie 5 years ago. At the very least, it managed to explain the mystery why Bruce Banner's pants remain intact when he transformed from human to hulk. Gotta love the surprise cameo at the end too! (Special thanks to Star Cineplex for providing me with complimentary tickets) Caught In The Act My eyes. They are NOT staring at where you think I'm staring. I'm innocent I swear.Blog Plug of the Day: I do not have blood relations with that blogger, Mr Benny Sia. Wild, Hot & Sweaty Over the weekend, I was in KL to attend the Nuffnang Wild 'Live' Party. Yo. The event was another one of Nuffnang's large-scale blogger gatherings since the Pajama Party they hosted in March. Hey, blogging is never meant to be a solitary exercise and well-organised parties like this one is especially fun to go to. It's also a great opportunity to get to know a hot chick or two. ... and maybe a cock. Being an animal-themed costume party, I half-expected that people might don't care and just turn up in nothing more than T-shirt and jeans. How wrong was I! Almost everybody came sportingly dressed as outrageous animals, took part in games, danced and really just completely let go of themselves. Tarzan Liang (aka Coolest Emcee In The Whole Of KL™) was again the host for the evening. Boss Timothy giving the welcome speech. I thought he might come as a mole (y'know, 'cos of his trademark mole?) but he came as a lion instead. Cheesie came as a sexy lioness. Look, she brought along her lunch box so she didn't have to eat all the animals there for dinner! How considerate. Chris Tock came as a cow, with his udders all hanging out. The guy won a RM4,000 laptop for being voted Best Dressed! From left to right, that's Pinkpau Su Ann as a lady bug, Suet Li as an ostrich and Jolyn as another lioness who came running all the way from Penang. Su Ann brought along this gigantic leaf and said its her home. As for me, I came dressed as... WINNIE THE POOH! The costume was damn hot ok. Was sweating throughout the entire evening. A lot of people came up to me and asked where's my pot of honey. To that I say, "screw the pot of honey!" Winnie the Pooh is all grown up now baby. Winnie the Pooh drinks BEER and hangs around a sexy pink leopard. Audrey the bee flew to my direction thinking I have honey, but I gave her Carlsberg instead. Finally met Suet Li after hearing about her for so long. Before this event, I actually thought Suet Li hated me a lot because she boycotted my blog once due to kennysia.com being so mainstream. But she turned out really nice, and we even camwhored a bit. From Dreamgirls to bloggers, my girls Adeline the leopard and Hanis the moth. Five months ago I was dishing out criticism on the clothes they wear. How strange it must be for them to look at me now dressed as Winnie the Pooh. With that girl Cynthia, whose boyfriend defeated me in a not very close fight for this year's CLEO Bachelor award. Now she wanna kill me. What lah. Lots of people dressed up as bunnies. Liang: "Wow, check this out! Four female bunnies to one male. You must be leading a good life my friend." Male Bunny: "Yea, but too bad I'm gay." If all bunnies are like that, they're gonna go extinct soon. How awesome is that elephant costume! Apart from being nominated for best dressed, Shad also won a special prize for featuring his pet TAPIR on his blog. There's a cow walking around letting random people cop a feel at his udders. If only I could do the same thing to girls, the world would be such a beautiful place. The gorgeous Nuffies from the front. And from the back. Oi, look at our tails lah. Don't stare elsewhere ok. The buffet dinner served at Modesto's was fantastic. It was so good, a cow walked into the restaurant to have his dinner there. Next thing you know, he walked into the kitchen and mysteriously disappeared. *cues X-files music* A chicken and a pooh bear shaking it on the dance floor. Something you don't see in Zouk everyday. I was playing with Cheesie Lioness' tail, but this picture ended up looking very salah. Bad Pooh Bear! BAD! This is Estee the butterfly, who flew in from Singapore. This is me wearing Estee's butterfly wings. This is me wearing Estee's butterfly wings, Su Ann's ladybug cap and WenQi's bunny ears. This is me wearing Estee's butterfly wings, Su Ann's ladybug cap, WenQi's bunny ears, Robb's porcupine backpack, pulling on Chris Tock's cow tits. All in all, an extremely fun evening out and I cannot wait for Nuffnang's next blogger gathering. Of course, there are heaps of other photos but I cannot possibly post them all. I'll let you browse the other blogs for them. So I'm gonna conclude this entry with a very special community service message. Stop Animal Abuse. Please, animals have feelings too.Wish I were in KL this weekend to attend KLue magazine's Urbanscapes! ADV: The Cheapest Way To Win A Trip To Old Trafford If you go the your local supermarket these days, you might notice something a lil different. No, it's not that just prices of everything seems to have gone up since the 40% petrol price hike. It's the fact that Mister Potato has gone from looking like this. To now looking like this. Yes, seems like Mister Potato has decided to abandon his potato farm in Mexico, shave off his moustache, put on his jersey and start a new career as a professional football player. Gotta say though, without his moustache, Mister Potato bears an uncanny resemblance to Portugese winger Cristiano Ronaldo. Heh heh heh. Of course that's not exactly true lah. That's the new promotional packaging in conjunction with a massive campaign that the snack food co is running. And I do mean MASSIVE. To celebrate the downfall of office productivity due to football-crazy Malaysians staying up till 5am every night to watch the Euro 2008 live, Mister Potato has unveiled their football-themed packaging as an homage to our love for all things football. However, the boffins at Mister Potato has taken it a step further. In addition to the new limited edition packaging, Mister Potato is giving you guys a shot at an opportunity of a lifetime: To watch a football match LIVE in arguably the most famous football stadium of all time. We're talking the Theatre of Dreams. Home of the Red Devils. Stomping ground of Manchester United. The Old Trafford in Manchester, England! It is not just going to be that one or two lucky buggers that will be going on this all-expense paid trip to Manchester, England. No, not even ten. Not even twenty. Mister Potato is going to send THIRTY lucky buggers hopping on that plane to Manchester, England! This is no joke. This is a true golden opportunity of a lifetime. Each seat is worth at least RM15,000 and includes flights, accomodation, match tickets and an exclusive tour of stadium and museum. What's the catch, you say? Well, what you gotta do is become the most gung-go Mister Potato wrapper collector in Malaysia. The limited edition canister seal is worth 3 points, the large packet is worth 2 points and the small packet is worth 1 point each. Become the Top 30 Football Point collector and you'll be guaranteed a seat on that plane to Manchester United's home stadium. Get into the Top 3 and you'll win RM5,000 spending money. Easy? Not quite. Considering how kiasu Malaysians are now becoming, this is by no means a simple feat. One thing for sure, you'll be competing with people who have no qualms spending RM10,000 on Mister Potato products as "investment" just to win that RM15,000 trip to Old Trafford. If you don't have that sum of money lying around, how else are you gonna win? The trick is to collect as many of those Mister Potato packets and canister seals WITHOUT spending too much of your own money. So what can you do? Take it from me. Here are THREE tips for you, that'll assure you'll reserve at least one seat among the thirty for that all expense paid trip to Old Trafford. Tip #1: Kidnap Mister Potato Kidnapping the big-headed mascot of Mister Potato is like almost kidnapping the President of USA. It's dirty, it's risky, it's evil. Yes. But if you can achieve that, then surely you can get them to give you whatever you want. Including all the Mister Potato wrappers you want from their printing factory. Tip #2: Intercept the postages at Mister Potato HQ Because all contest entry forms must eventually go to the Mister Potato HQ in Subang Jaya, we just intercept the postages before they reach the person in charge. That's the idea of Pik Yen, Michelle, Jayce, Nick and Sheng Li, who collectively devised an ingenious strategy to disguise themselves as the official security guards in order to steal the wrappers from other contestants. They gotta work on the a better diguise though. Unfortunately, those two suggestions are borderline legal. And kennysia.com shall not take any responsibility if you get into trouble with the law. However, the next tip is not only effective, it is also perfectly legal. ;) Tip #3 is... Tip #3: Become Good Friends With Cindy's Dad If Mr Tey can spend thousand of ringgit in SMS votes to help his daughter win Malaysian Dreamgirl, surely it's no problems for him to buy you one whole TON of them Mister Potato wrappers right? RIGHT? Is there anyone reading this own or operated a fitness centre before? Please pop me an e-mail at im@kennysia.com. I'll buy you coffee and we need to talk. :) Tony Fernandes Read My Blog Remember not too long ago, I wrote an entry poking fun at how the food on AirAsia does not look anywhere close to their pictures on the menu? I know it's bad of me to nitpick on the visual presentation of airplane food several thousand feet up in the air. Still, you gotta admit that the difference between the picture and the actual product is as big as the transformation of Britney Spears. Anyway, a few days ago I received a phone call out of the blue from the communications department of AirAsia. The lady informed me that the no-frills airline is holding an event for the launch their new in-flight menu, and they asked if I could come and attend their event. Immediately, the first thought that came to my mind was, "Oh crap... they must've been reading my blog." Honestly, I was wondering what their intention was for inviting me. Maybe there wasn't actually an event to launch their new in-flight menu. Maybe they were inviting me to BECOME their new in-flight menu. At first, I turned down the invitation. Not because I was scared, but because I've been flying around too much and I needed to rest. But after several repeated attempts, I can sense their genuine sincerity in inviting me over. In particular, I was impressed that they can confirm my flights and accommodation 30 minutes after getting off the phone with me. And that was only THREE hours before I was due to fly. Yes, it was an extremely last minute trip. So there I was in KL, at Borneo Baruk Club in Jalan Kia Peng (which by the way is my absolute favourite place to attend an event in KL because it's a Sarawak-themed club and it's super easy to get to.) Sure enough, there was in fact a launch for their new in-flight menu. In addition to good ol' Pak Nasser's Nasi Lemak, there's now Sri Melur Jaya Nasi Briyani. Roti Canai. Roti Jala. 1901 New York Chicken hotdogs. Satay with Rice. Sarawakian songstress Camelia was on hand to witness the launch, as was stand-up comedian Alfdin Shauki who made a funny comment that normally airplane food taste different on air than on the ground, but in AirAsia, they actually taste the same. That, you gotta admit is true. Since Malaysia Airlines started on cost-cutting measures, they no longer serve hot food on the Kuching-KL flights anymore. And eventhough you gotta pay for meals onboard AirAsia, at least they still taste better than the cold boxed sets MAS is serving. During the event, I bumped into Kuching-born Jason Lo. J Lo is a singer, music producer, hitz.fm radio host and now the CEO of TuneTalk.com, which is the company's soon-to-be-launched mobile phone network operator. Very ironic, especially since Jason Lo's recent hit song was "Operator, The Line Is Dead." For me however, the highlight of the trip was meeting up with Dato' Sri Tony Fernandes, founder and group CEO of AirAsia. Regardless of what anyone think of AirAsia's services, you gotta have tremendous amount of respect for this guy. Tony Fernandes is the man who single-handedly revolutionised the entire aviation industry in South-East Asia. He is the person who made it possible for travel-junkies like me to realise my dreams of exploring as many destination in the world as possiblem, and the man who made it possible for me to travel back-and-forth between Kuching and KL so often for work and leisure and not go bankrupt. I use his airlines on average once every two weeks. So really, you can't expect me not to have a "man-gasm" when I met him. Tony Fernandes was busy handling journalists and business associates throughout the 2-hour long event so we did not quite manage to chat up. It was AFTER the event that I received a call on my phone, from none other than Tony himself. Kenny: "Hello?" Tony: "Hi Kenny, it's Tony Fernan..." Kenny: "HELLO? Har?! WHO IZZIT? I cannot hear you!" Tony: "It's Tony Fernandes." Kenny: "OMG! Oh... Hi Tony!" Tony: "Hey, I got your number from Jason Lo. I just called to say thanks for coming to our event." Tony Fernandes then mentioned that he has read kennysia.com before (and Kenny had a second "man-gasm"), and that he's planning to start a CEO blog soon. It was quite surreal to think that I am actually speaking to such an inspirational figure, that the 24th richest person in Malaysia have enough courtesy to call me on my phone and speak to me like we're on the same level. The sheer experience of speaking to Tony Fernandes is enough to make me feel paiseh over the several times I've bagged AirAsia for the little mistakes they have made, eventhough I have always enjoyed using their services and that I will continue to use their services no matter what. Sorry Tony. Can I have free AirAsia tickets now?I can't wait for the Nuffnang Wild 'Live' Party tomorrow night! I think I'm gonna go as an orang utan. With so much hair on my body, I don't need a costume to look like one anyway. The Food In Bali The food in Bali is awesome. Throughout our one week stay in the Island of Gods, the four of us pretty much stuffed our faces crazy with some of the best authentic Indonesian food we have ever eaten. The great about thing eating in Bali is that it doesn't matter whether it's the lavish RM50 seafood feast by the beach, or the 20 sen pork satays by the roadside in the middle of the mountains, delicious food is everywhere to be found in Bali. In fact, I might even say there's no such thing as bad food in Bali. The hunt for good food didn't start off quite as smoothly though. Our first night in Bali, we went to this gorgeous restaurant named Nasi Bali in the middle of Kuta. Because we're all in a foreign country, we all wanna try something special and not commonly found back home. Luckily, the restaurant menu was easy enough to read. After all, Bahasa Indonesia shares many similarities to our own Bahasa Malaysia. My dish So I ordered this delicious Seafood Nasi Goreng while Chris Tock and Cheesie opted for the sumptuous Balinese Feast. Chris and Cheesie's feast IcyQueenGoddess on the other hand, decided to experiment with something a bit more exotic and picked a curiously sounding item from the menu called Cap Cay, eventhough she had no clue what Cap Cay is and what Cap Cay looks like. Good for her. I always applaud people willing to try new things. It wasn't when her meal finally arrived that she came to the sudden realisation that "Cap Cay" was actually not pronounced "CHAP CHAY". IcyQueenGoddess' lousy dish! Cap Cay is really just a boring old vegetable dish, more commonly known to us as "ZHAP CHAI". So much for trying something new. Now that we know not to order something from the menu we don't understand, we wisened up and our lunches and dinners since then were nothing but a real treat. One of my most memorably meal was in Jimbaran, a small coastal town 30 minutes south of Kuta. At close to 140K Rupiah (RM50) per head, our dinner at Jimbaran was easily the most expensive throughout our entire Bali trip. That said, I gotta say it was worth every cent of it because it was the best grilled seafood feast I've ever had in the longest time. There's nothing quite like savouring the freshest catch from the ocean, dining underneath the stars on candle lit tables set up by the beach, hair swept by the sea breeze, toes digging into the sand, listening to the crashing of waves, chit-chatting with friends while enjoying the vocals from the group of roving musicians serenading you with a love songs. It was incredibly romantic. So romantic that at one pointIcyQueenGoddess wept uncontrollably during a song. I don't know why she got so emotional cried. But I assumed she was hoping to share that magical moment with some hot half-naked hunk. Instead what she got was Chris Tock, and a hairy ape too obsessed with his coconuts. The food at Jimbaran Bay are one of a kind. Outside the typical tourist traps, food in Bali are all very reasonably priced. Warung Indonesia, located in the backlanes of Kuta, for example, serves generous portions of Padang food for around 13K Rupiah (RM5) each. The dirty bakso pushcart at the Ubud Market also sells fabulous meatball soup for an equally dirt cheap price of 5K Rupiah (RM1.50) per serving. Notice that the meehoon they use here are blue in colour. Bakso to Indonesians are like Kolo Mee to Kuchingnites. You can never say you've been to Indonesia until you've had the experience of squating over some strangers' doorsteps, eating by the roadside with one hand holding the bowl of bakso and the other hand holding utensils washed so carelessly that you could still taste the previous customer's saliva in it. As unhygenic as it may sound, the bakso served is always mouthwatering and pack a punch full of flavour. Just across the road from the Ubud Market is the most famous Babi Guling Ibu Oka. Babi means pig, Guling means rolling, and Ibu Oka is presumably the Auntie Oka who runs the shop. Babi Guling is Bali's famous traditional dish and a must-try for any visitor to the island. Ibu Oka's warung is like an institution over here. Locals and tourists have been raving about it since the day we touched down in Bali. Despite being such a huge crowd favourite, Ibu Oka has maintained a modest price of 25K Rupiah (RM9) for a large bowl of spit roasted pig on a bed of rice, pickled veggies and fried pork skin. We dined at many beautiful restaurants in Bali, and all of them were fantastic. But if you ask me which dining experience I remembered most fondly of, I'd say it's at the crappy roadside stall where we had our very authentic local version of pork satays. We stopped by this insignificant roadside stall after 2 hours of butt-thumping journey driving through pothole-filled mountain roads of central Bali. I can't tell you where this stall is located because I don't even know. We were so far away from the tourist radar that the place we were in was not even depicted on my GPS map. All our backache were forgotten as soon as we sat down on the wooden benches, eating freshly barbequed pork satays on a mountain village some 1,000m above sea level. An order of 10 sticks cost us just 5K Rupiah (RM1.60), and we liked it so much that as soon as we finished, we ordered another 10 more. There's something about pork that conjures a whole new level of taste when they're done as satays. One drink I can never get enough of everytime I travel to Indonesia is this concoction they called Soda Gembira which I discovered during my last trip to Jakarta. Essentially, it's just syrup and condensed milk mixed with iced soda. Somehow the mixture worked really well together, and I love it so much that I ordered it on almost every meal. Soda Gembira, translated to English, means Happy Soda. And everytime I drink Soda Gembira, I become very happy. Soda. A word of warning though when you dine in Bali. Indonesian food can be very, very spicy. We were at a restaurant called Bebek Bengil (Dirty Duck Diner), a lovely restaurant located in the middle of the rice paddy fields in Ubud. Give their signature crispy duck a pass. Go straight for BBQ pork ribs which are absolutely to-die-for. On our night at Bebek Bengil, it was their traditional Indonesian Gado-gado that stole the show. Specifically, it's the tiny little chilli on the dish that made quite an "explosive" impact on one of our posse. Something I'm sure Christopher Tock will agree. Don't be fooled by his serious face. He actually really liked the chilli. Just watch his "review" above.Weird News Of The Day: "A Singaporean man with a penchant for sniffing women's armpits was sentenced to 14 years in jail and 18 strokes of the cane for molesting his victims. He molested 23 women over the course of 15 months, smelling their armpits in lifts, staircase landings and their homes." Poor guy. Why sentence him to caning? If he likes armpit smell so much, the only punishment he deserves is to permanently stickytape his face to my hairy stinking armpits. ADV: Of Picky Unemployed Graduates After spending 5 years in the professional workforce, I finally concluded that fresh graduates who complained that there's not enough jobs for them in Malaysia must be either: (1) really lazy, or (2) complete morons. A quick search using popular online job search website Monster.com.my revealed that there's as many as 79 listings for jobs requiring less than 1 year working experience. Monster.com is a global online career and recruitment search engine graduates can use to find suitable jobs not just in Malaysia, but throughout 50 countries where it has a presence in. Worldwide, over 7 million job searches are performed on Monster's search engine everyday. With more than 80 million resumes on file, it is also the largest global resume database in the world. And that number is rapidly increasing everyday with aggressive recruitment campaigns like these. According to Monster.com, there's as many as 39 jobs in Sales, 39 jobs in Engineering and 35 jobs in Accounting in Malaysia. A lot of these jobs are at prestigious high-paying jobs in reputable companies. Some are even multinationals such as IBM, Tyco and BMW. More jobs are available for you if you are willing to relocate out of Malaysia, to work in countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Thailand or India. Surely out of all these, there's must be at least one position that fits? It seems to me like the reason there's so many fresh grads in Malaysia still not able to secure a job is because many of them think way too highly of themselves. I've seen it before. A bunch of rich kids fresh out of Uni walking into the interview room demanding for the kind of salary that even a manager with 10 years experience are ashamed of asking. One look at their resume, I struggle to find a reason why I should be employing them. A lot of fresh grads complained that no one wanted to employ them because they don't have any experience under their belt. I'm not saying that finding a job as a fresh grad is easy. I've been there before. Yellow Pages in hand, cold-calling all 50 engineering companies in my area pleading them to take a final-year engineering undergrad as their intern. Finally one company accepted, and I went to to intern 6 months for an engineering testing lab free of charge just to gather enough work experience for me to apply for a better-paying job. After my internship, I worked my backside off for another company for 2 years. Time and time again, I prove to them that I'm a valuable asset to the company that they cannot live without. I made no demands and my starting salary was meagre. But eventually they're happy to double my salary in 2 years because I made myself so integral to their company that if I were to leave them, the company would suffer a loss far greater than what they are paying me. Look at mah OLD SK00L PC! Now that I am in a position where I interview and employ people to work for me, all I can say is that some fresh grads should really keep their egos in check before they walk into the interview room. Until they can fend for themselves on the proving grounds, they have no right to ask for ridiculous benefits. You're not a student anymore. You are a professional. No longer are employers interested in how many A's you could score in your exams. Above all else, the number one criteria I'm looking for is how hard you're willing to fight to help us reach our common goals. It's not that there are not enough jobs out there for fresh grads. The jobs are there. Monster has such a huge database of them. Question is, do you have the right attitude for the job? Blog Plug Of The Day: This one is a must-read for all the girls out there thinking about participating in beauty pageants. Beauty queen natalynn has been around the pageant circuit, and in this blog entry she reveals all about the dirty secrets behind the workings of Miss Malaysia Universe. Wait. What's that sound? That's the sound of a BOMBSHELL dropping, that's what! Fruit Flavoured Condoms I think we all know why fruit-flavoured condoms are created. Without getting too specific about it, let's just say, sometimes mommy decides that she wants her banana to taste like strawberries. Right? Not just strawberries of course. There are a lot of flavours that condoms usually come with. Strawberry. Banana. Orange. Chocolate. Mint. But have you ever seen a condom that comes in THIS flavour? Excuse me but... WHY ON EARTH DOES ANYONE WANNA CREATE A DURIAN FLAVOURED CONDOM? Are you kidding me? Which idiot would want his dick to smell like something that is BANNED FOR A REASON in hotels, airplanes, buses and trains nationwide? I know we all love the King of Fruits, but seriously this is taking it a bit too far. Nobody is asking you to make love to durians! At least have some sympathy for the girl on the receiving end ok? Poor girl's punani is gonna suffer from excessive "heatiness" from taking in too much durians. Maybe you should get her some mangosteen just in case.AD: If you wanna get a driving licence in Singapore, you must pass your Basic Theory Test (BTT) and Final Theory Test (FTT). Foreigners converting driving licence need to only pass BTT alone. The passing mark is 90%, which means you must answer at least 45 out of 50 questions correctly. There are several ways to practise for these tests, but the smartest way is by logging on to SingaporeTests.com.sg. It has the largest and most up-to-date question database, available in both English and Chinese, and even comes with a Sure Pass Money Back Guarantee to ensure you will never be unprepared for your theory tests.