Photos when we went for shoot outstation

at Seremban Museum, behind is the Minangkabau style long house

inside the long house, worried that it might fall! hehe!

this is me posing!

eating siew yu very very spicy at Petaling Street, with a bunch of my students most of them already found jobs in KL.

Melaka, this is the location of 1 of the scene in 《夏日麽麽茶》when Sammi and Richie argued in a restaurant.

mmm... not so happy day.

today got the result for my dissertation, i got a B for it. was hoping for better grade, although B was also in my expected list, but it was the lowest i expected, and i got the lowest!!! damn!!! now my CGPA has dropped to 3.47 from 3.62... so damn tulan. but then again, nothing i can do now, neither can i turn back time, so gotta accept it and graduated with 3.47.... hehehehe!!! so long as i get my master, who cares what grade i got right?? HOORAY... i finally graduated!!!

these few days have been really relaxing because i've done the big project of guangming heroes. so i finally have time to sit down and watch my DVD collections, after so long. yesterday night i watched "the shutter" and "tomb raider", tonight i've watched "phantom of the opera", the night before yesterday i watched "hainanese chicken rice"... all are nice movies!! will watch more tomorrow! what's you all suggest me to watch?? got a few in mind... probably "ray", "A1 headline", "series of misfortune event" or even "million dollar baby"??

and ya, forgot to tell you all 1 thing, last thursday night i was at ipoh attending the award night at Syuen hotel. when i got back to penang it's already 3am, and i realize my flat got no electricity. and the 1st thing i noticed is the kitchen was all wet... seems that the electricity was off since afternoon, so the ice melted and banjir the whole place... sigh... that's not all... the next morning before i went to work, i wanted to iron my shirt, but the iron was not functioning, at first i thot it was the iron... but then it was the extension cord... seems it's blowed! then i overheard a couple chatting about the power failure in the lift, it seems the TNB had fucked up the connection and let the power overflow or whatever that means lah... some household even lost 6000 worthed of electrical appliance due to that mistake. so when i reached home that evening, i quickly checked all my stuffs, most importantly the fridge.. phewww... nothing burned... so lucky, only the extension cord. stupid TNB!

Mount Kinabalu, here i come!!!!

Have decided to go Mount Kinabalu end of July, everything has been set, only waiting for that days to come!! yahoo... didn't travel for a long long time, really looking forward to it.

here are the itineraries:

Thursday,21 July 2005

6.20 pm

i) depart from Senai (RM49.99)

ii) depart from KLIA (RM79.99)

8.40 pm arrive at Kota Kinabalu (KK)

10.00 pm stay one night at Kota Kinabalu Airport or KK town

Friday, 22 July 2005

8.00 am Breakfast

10.00 am to Manukan Island

1.00 pm lunch

4.00 pm proceed to Kota Kinabalu Park

6.00 pm arrive Kinabalu Park for registration

7.00 pm check in to Mesilau Nature Resort (RM30 per person – bunk beds, 3 bedrooms with heater –RM350)

7.30 pm dinner

Saturday, 23 July 2005

6.00 am breakfast

7.00 am start climb

1.00 pm check in to Lapan Rata (room with heater: RM34 per person, without heater: RM17 per person), orGunting Lagadan Hut (RM 17 person without room heater)

2.00 pm lunch

Sunday, 24 July 2005

1.00 am light snack before climb

1.30 am start climb

5.30 am summit – sun rise

9.00 am breakfast at Lapan Rata

6.00 pm check in to Poring Hot Spring

7.00 pm Dinner

Monday, 25 July 2005

7.00 am Breakfast

12.00 pm check out from Poring Hot Spring and proceed to KK

2.00 pm lunch

3.00 pm walk around KK market

5.30 pm seafood dinner

6.30 pm proceed to Airport

9.05 pm depart from KK (RM49.99)

11.20 pm arrive at JB

9.15 pm depart from KK (RM99.99)

11.45 pm arrive at KLIA

Look mom, i'm on newspaper and website.

This is the press release of the video shooting experience... I really need to sleep now... yesterday rushed the edits out, so didn't sleep at all...
http://www.guangming.com.my/hero02/content.phtml?sec=1&sdate=&artid=200504101333

I will stop writing for a while.

Now is another busy time of video shooting and editing, and i also bought a lot of DVDs, not mentioned the DVDs that accumulated since 2 years ago... so i think i better concentrate on watching all these DVDs and working on the videos... plus looking for jobs and scholarship in KL. so, i'll disappear for a while. :)

Fight for Chinese school - Mr. Lee

We said bye bye to Melaka by 9.30am, reached Seremban toll by 10.30am. Met up with the reporter, and we drove to Mr. Lee’s farm. Mr. Lee has been driving kids to school for 8 years for free. The school is far inside a rubber estate, no student wants to attend the Chinese school anymore, but he felt that it’s very wasted to shut down the school; he volunteered to send students with his van. 8 years of doing so, the money that he spent on petrol is enough to buy a terrace house. During the interview, we found out that he was only doing so because at the same time he was sending his children there too, no other kids are like tumpang lah. When asked after his children finished school, will he continue to send other kids to school, he said no…. hahahaha! Not very noble lor… but then think back again, he can always send his children to other school at town, easier, but he still insist on sending them to that school, he must has loved the school so much!



We went to the school, a very nice one, fresh air green scenery, even got internet access now! Whole school has only 7 students, all in their standard 5 and 6. The school next to it is a Tamil school, packed with students! Such a huge comparison. They wanted to move the school out of this estate to the town so that the number of Chinese schools in Malaysia won’t be dropping, but faced a lot of problems from the government. Still he is fighting for it…

After taking some shots of him picking up the students after school, we said goodbye, and the reporter brought us to have lunch in Seremban. Bought a few famous Seremban siewpao, we were ready to go home to KL. Stopped by Seremban museum to see some Minangkabau architecture and snapped some photos, we drove back to KL by 3.30pm. Reached KL around 5pm. Went to Petaling Street for dinner, this time the ikan bakar was MUCH better!!! We treated the students, and another students who are now working in KL, some sort of gathering. Again we ate like bulls…. I must have gained weight a lot! Then we went shopping there, noticed a lot of “pirated” shoes selling for RM60 o.n.o. So tempted, but managed to control. We went back to my house, and slept!

The next day, we went to the press office at PJ, talked to the chief editor, got some videos from them, I then brought my students to APV to meet up with Chen. APV changed a lot!! So different from last time when I worked there… the design is ok lah, more modern and glamorous, but I prefer the warmer feel last time. Asked my fren to bring my students around and brief them on the online, telecine, tape room, and offline… my students are so amazed. Then we went to the mamak nearby for lunch with Chen, ah Bo and other ex-colleagues. They were still the same, we joked like last time, and my students were amazed to see me that crazy. Ah Bo got a crush on my student, gave him her card… so funny!

Originally wanted to go Ikea, but too tired, and everybody was eager to go back Penang, so we leave KL 2.30pm. Sayonara.

The jail counselor - Mr. John Tan

We leaved KL by 6.30am. We were supposed to reach the Kluang train station by 9.30am. The night before, I’ve already phoned up a fren to check for direction. So, no problem in finding it despite a few wrong turns. Hahaha! Reached there probably by 9.40am or something. The reporter brought us to the cafetaria next to the station to have according to her the famous coffee and toast. We ate like bulls, hungry like hell, wallup all the toasts, nasi lemak, eggs, fried beehoon, and the reporter gotta belanja… hahaha! That’s not the point lah, I mean I did insist on paying mah…

Mr. John Tan came to the station by 10am to bring us to his house. A very kind 50s man, soft spoken and very polite and friendly. Hard to imagine he was a gangster head before, and also a drug addict. He quitted drug, but the side effect stays, we could see his hand and leg were with bandage and damn bengkak. Now with his experience and successfully quitted with the help of religion (Christian), he is a full time counselor and give seminar all over the world. In fact, he was going to Australia to give talk 2 days later.

During the 1 hour interview, he told us a lot about gangster life, drugs, counseling, even gave us his VCDs, acted for us to shoot. 1 thing I learnt from him is – never tempt an ex-drug addict, he will starts taking it again. Those who successfully quitted normally did it with the support of their families, leave the circle of frens they used to have, and a very strong religious support. John’s house also been transformed in a “half-way-home” for the druggies to stay if they have no one to turn to – with 1 condition: they have the determination to change for good! John told us, he thinks it’s his duty to do this job, because he was once a drug addict and gangster, so he could relate well with them, and more credible in persuading them that it is VERY POSSIBLE to quit all these bad habits.

I’ve asked John about a fren's case of wanting to try cocaine out of curiosity, he told me NOT to!! There was a case when 3 doctors tried it with the same reason to understand how addicts feel… 1 ended up suicide by jumping down tall building, 1 dead of OD, another still addict to it… Nobody is strong enough to fight it, and to put a stop to a second shot, so DON’T CHALLENGE IT!! Please don’t even start! Ok!

We’re done with John by 12pm, and he suggested treating us lunch, we turned it down coz wanted to meet a fren (the pregnant lady’s fren) in Segamat. Only later found out that the fren in Segamat was sick. So we headed to Melaka straight. Reached Melaka by 2pm, supposed to meet up with a student’s fren, but she got work until 5.30pm, so we drove to the town by ourselves to look for the famous Chicken Riceballs… so hungry!!! We just parked the car at roadside, walked down, grabbed an aunty and asked which restaurant is the famous one… she told us “Chung Hwa”. So we walked there, ordered and makan!! Nothing special, just the shape of the rice… hahaha. And so expensive! After makan, because of 1 of my student saying he wanted to visit the red house, and a-farmosa because it’s his first time here, so we walked with him, snapped some photos, and really really tired!!! Sat down had cendol, then the ladies wanted to go shopping already!!! (they were not tired meh??) So, we walked to the Chinatown and cruising shop by shop because we still have 2 hours to kill. Nothing to buy, but I bought a massage stick for my mom, and some scented sticks for my frens back in Penang.

The fren sampai around 6pm and brought us to her aunty’s flat… that’s where we would be staying for a night. The aunty looked very young, like 30-something, but actually she is already 43! She could not believe that me and the pregnant lady are the lecturers, she said I look like 24yo…. HAHAHAHAHA!!!! I told her I want to belanja her satay celup!! But then she was not free to join us, so we went with the fren, her boyfren, for satay!! It’s very much like “Lok-Lok” in Penang, but quite nice lah. The boyfren looks like gangster, but actually he is very very nice man. While eating satay celup, he was already thinking of where to bring us next. Then he brought us to the Portuguese Village for ikan bakar… mmm…. Not so nice, the fish got funny smell, the la-la was good though. We returned to the flat around 10.30pm, he still wanted to tapao some kuih, white kuih that only could be found in Melaka sort of thing, but then the shop closed lah… we were so tired, we slept straight away!

The swimming instructor - Mr. Ng

We reached Seberang Jaya Swimming Pool by 2pm. At the entrance of the pool, we could see a dark and fit man talking to some Malays, but we were not sure whether this was the guy we were waiting for. By 2.15pm we saw a lady who look like reporter walking towards the man, so we also approach them.

It was a bloody hot day, 21/3 was supposed to be the hottest day ever. Trust me, shooting at the middle of the pool, no shade at all, we knew it was the hottest!!! Damn, my face and hands darken quickly. This man, Mr. Ng, is a swimming and life-saving instructor, and his assistant, Mr. Teoh, both were like charcoal, so what did they care about being dark? They talked to us under the hot sun, while training a girl of Down syndrome in the pool, casually, while we were trying to be professional but hot to the max.

Well, enough of complaining, back to why we were interviewing them… they teach disable children for free – like Down syndrome, handicapped, or generally they call them “special children” or “challenged children”. They also perform physiotherapy to them for free. If they can swim well, they will also train them for free to join any sport events or paralympic. This girl (Down) that he brought today to let us video is one of his student who enter competition. A very shy girl name Shi Ling, who knows all 4 strokes including butterfly, and according to Mr. Teoh, she is probably the only Down syndrome person to know Butterfly… I was puzzled so I asked why? He told us that people who suffers from Down normally have an extra or distorted bone at the neck that stop them from swimming butterfly, the stroke might dislocate or hurt the bone and will cause death. Besides, Down syndrome ppl also have hole in their heart, so they cannot swim too aggressively.

The Malay lady teacher that brought Shi Ling also is remarkable!! She teaches in special school with very very low salary (I think is around RM400 only), yet she is willing to bring students to swim here and there, for absolutely no fee, not even the petrol… wow! She really loves these students. But of course during the interview, they were taking the opportunity to urge the public to donate some money lah, but that’s understandable.

After the shoot, we went over to the Malay stalls opposite the pool, Mr. Ng wanted to belanja us makan. So we had ais kacang, mee goring… mmm… yummy!! And we chatted more. Then I told Mr. Teoh that I’ve met him before, that’s when I was still a lifeguard in USM years, I also saw him during life-saving competitions.

By 4.00pm, finally we were done, and ready to drive to KL, then the pregnant lady wanted to go home to take bath first. I have to agree lor, so we only started driving to KL by 4.30pm. All the way to KL, there were heavy pours, could hardly see the roads clearly. We reached KL by 8pm, my mom has all the food readied, so we just makan lah! Yummy!! By 9pm, fetched my other student from Kelana LRT, she was coming from Genting to join us, brought her home to feed her. By 10pm, we went to SS2 to meet up with Chew Yan to pass her VCD and info of the logo and to brief her on how we would like the graphics, logo, and opening to be.

We went home after supper by 11pm. Watched a little bit of 《不见》directed by李康生, the 1st 10 minute was all about a grandma looking for her missing kid in a park… boring shit! But however, I would watch it again on my own, just don’t want to bore my students to death! Then it’s goodnight after that cause the next day we need to wake up by 6am to depart for Kluang, Johor.