January 2009 – w w w . x e .s . c x

Chinese New Year 2009

Chinese New Year had been pretty great save for recent passing of a good friend’s mother. Mel, if you’re reading this, don’t worry. We’re definitely here for you!
Other than that it was a little bit tiring. Just few days ago, WK, Umeng and his 2 brothers, KF, Kiang, SL and I were playing counterstrike at a cybercafé in Kuchai Lama until 6am. We did the same thing the night before. Our initial plan was to head to Genting Highlands for a day trip but when everyone gathered, it was already 12am hence too late.
When we got off from the cybercafé, I had a déjà vu feeling. It felt like I was back in high school again. We did the same thing when 12 to 15 years ago. Time flies.
Aussie boy, Umeng and SL are back from Australia for Chinese New Year. Wei Chen just came back as well.
Just last week, we had a birthday party for Ping and Umeng cum farewell for Jin Han and cum homecoming for the Aussie boys at Neway Karaoke. It was … havoc. Everyone was forcing each other to drink.

In the end of the night, some were knocked out and some were puking their guts out.

Further, I left my camera in the karaoke room and Kiang left his car keys there as well. I didn’t realize I lost it until the next day! Fortunately, Kiang, who went back to find his keys, found my camera and kept it for me.
The chaps at Neway Times Square were a great help as well. I initially lost all hope for my digital camera when I realize that I left it in Neway. However, when I called Neway, they took down my report and informed me that they will call me back if they find it. They called me back eventually and informed me that it’s not in their Lost and Found section. But the chap on the phone told me that he will go back to the room to search for it. I was quite impressed with their level of service. Couple of weeks back, a friend of mine dropped her wallet in front of a local airline company. When she made a report, the airline company located her wallet – with RM3000 missing.
Anyway, my high school friends and I will be making a trip down to Pulau Tioman. It’s going to be another drunken trip again. I hope that we will be sober enough to enjoy the entire trip. I also hope to climb there as I heard that Tioman has couple of climbing spots there.

BRB!

Richard Wee Lopez

It is quite common for law firms in the United States and United Kingdom to have their own blogs. In those blogs, they usually would post entries on latest development of the law. Most of the time, its quite impersonal and serious.

Recently, fellow lawyer Richard Wee and Sunil Lopez joined forces to set up Messrs. Richard Wee Lopez. They have also established a blog at http://richardweelopez.blogspot.com/ – perhaps one of the first law firms in Malaysia to have a blog. Congrats to Richard and Sunil and welcome to the blogosphere.
On another note, I will be giving a talk at eLawyer Law Conference 2009 which will be held at the Law Faculty University Malaya some time in March. Most likely I will be talking about Blogging and Intellectual Property law. Watch this space!

Rock Climbing @ Nanyang Wall @ Batu Caves

Not wanting to lose our new found skills from our Krabi trip, team Malaysia (consisting of Anna, Ed, Cris, Ping and I) headed to Nanyang Wall @ Batu Caves to climb. It was our first time there. Many thanks to Abner for guiding us there.

Nanyang Wall is one of the climbing spots around Batu Caves. I heard that some climbers pooled in their resources and bolted a lot of new routes. The area is strategically located. It’s next to the main road and within walking distance from a commercial district. We parked our car at the commercial district and walked toward Nanyang Wall.

Unlike Damai Wall, Nanyang Wall doesn’t have a public toilet. Those who wants to do their small business can walk deeper into Nanyang Wall. For big business, you got to head to one of the restaurants at the commercial district. Just buy a few sweets from them and I think they will be obliged to lend them their toilet. I recall there was once a friend who had to knock on someone’s door to use their toilet cause they are no public toilets around. He said the toilet had holes all over the wall. HEHE

Most of the routes in Nanyang Wall are pretty short. However, the routes are quite technical.

View from top!

Left or Right?

My favourite route would be the route called “Old Shoes Beware”. As the name suggests, wearing old shoes to climb is not recommended. This route is only made of 4 bolts but handholds and footholds are mostly crimps. You need new shoes to ensure that your feet stays on the footholds.

Me belaying Ping while thinking how to free fall him later.

Hanging by the tip of my fingers and toes.

We spotted a small young bird by the rocks. I guess it fell off its nest and couldn’t climb back up. I fed it with bread and even Mandarin oranges. Someone decided to put the little bird up a tree. He said other birds will feed it too. I hope I won’t find a skeleton when I come back next time.

We had lunch at one of the mamaks nearby. The food and service were terrible. The boss was quite rude as well.

Me: Boss, I ordered maggi sup kosong. (plain noodles soup without any additional stuff)
Boss: yea, that’s maggi kosong.
Me: If it’s maggi kosong, how come I have vegetable in my soup?
Boss: Yea, its maggi kosong. We added vegetable for you.
Me: O_O

Nasi Lemak Ibu . Com – website still under construction

For the first time, we climbed from morning till late evening – from 10am to 6pm. Usually we would pack our bags by the afternoon because it gets too hot. However, Nanyang Wall was quite cool throughout the whole day. Further, the atmosphere was quite fun as other climbers were pretty friendly as well. A group of climbers even loaned us their rope, which was fresh out from the bag.

They were nice enough to let us deflower their new rope. Aah.. Fresh rope..

The rope got tangled. Need 3 fellows to untangle it.

A few of us decided to pack up early and hung around playing cards while waiting for the rest to finish climbing.

Best Belayer evaaa

Triple decker

Eddie hurt himself while descending from a route. He removed his runner from the bolt and jump down. He managed to lodge himself down safely a few times but… luck wasn’t on his side..

GGed

To get to Nanyang Wall, head to Taman Sunway Batu Caves

Happy Chinese New Year

www.xes.cx wishes all Chinese friends and readers, “HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR”!

May you win BIG this new year!

Look Alike – Part V

People say that there are 7 people out there who looks like you. Now I’ve found 2. Some of you may recall that I posted a picture of a singer by the name Edwin that looks like me [see here].

The newest person that looks like me (or I look like him) is also a singer. His name is Sam Hart.

His songs are good! The most popular song is probably his Mario Kart Love Song with 2 million hits! Even my Melbourne Shuffle Basic Video don’t have that many hits!

Notwithstanding that both Edwin and Sam are singers, I can’t sing for nuts. But maybe the 3 of us could start a band, Edwin and Sam can sing and I err…just sit around.

5 more twins to go!

Look Alike – Part IV – Barack Obama

Newly inaugurated President Obama has found himself a look alike in Indonesia. Ilham Anas of Indonesia recently capitulated to fame due to his striking similarity with President Obama.

He does look a bit like President Obama except that Ilham is a little thinner – looks like Obama after Crossfit.

A Filipino drug company has cast Ilham in a commercial showing him dressed as Obama – probably in the commercial below.

Well, Ilham isn’t the only one that looks like Barack Obama. If you do a search on Youtube, you’ll couple of videos of Barack Obama lookalikes. With this in mind, I’m sure everyone here would have a lookalike somewhere in this world.

The Simpsons Melbourne Shuffle

What goes through your mind when someone says “Lets go for a drink”? – Part II

This is something that popped up on my mind when someone tells me “Lets go for a drink” and I reply “OK, YOU DRIVE!”

The law on vehicle rear seat belts started on 1 January 2009. Vehicle owners and passengers will be given a six-month grace period up to 30 June 2009 when they will only be issued a compound fine of RM300 for not wearing rear seat belts.
From 1 July 2009, drivers and passengers caught not using their seat belts would have to pay a fine of up to RM2,000, serve up to one year’s jail or both.

What goes through your mind when someone says “Lets go for a drink”?

I received a forward email which enclosed a flowchart of what a man and a woman would think when someone tells them “Lets go for a drink?”. These posters are part of an advertising campaign for the Israeli Goldstar beer. Probably to get their mind of the Palestinian conflict.

I laughed out loud when I saw the above advertisements. It got me thinking too. What goes on my mind when someone says “Lets go for a drink”…

pwned!!

Nikefootball.com – Ronaldo

Well, as some of you may know, Christiano Ronaldo was named Footballer of the Year. The Cry Baby (he always cries when his team losses) recently had an accident where he crashed his Ferrari. He escaped unhurt. I guess winning the Footballer of the Year award soothes his pain of crashing his Ferrari. Check out his latest advert!