Pimp my Ride - the Transformers edition (Part 2)

MB : Hey it’s me Michael Bay again. I’m back for part two and just in time for the release of the movie tomorrow.

In today’s episode, we ‘pimp’ the bad boys. We are talking about the Decepticons here, the guys who love to cause mayhem with the earth folks, and who always find the pesky Autobots in their way of more ‘Energon Cubes’.

You’ll love what we did to Megatron, the former son of a gun (literally that is). He now doesn’t need Soundwave (too bad he’s not in the movie) or Starscream (the plotting usurper) to pull his trigger. We also ugli-fied him, okay, the rest of them too, so that they will ooze terror and menace, and so that the earth folks can eventually differentiate the good and the bad.

Let’s not waste anymore time, here goes…

Bonecrusher

Before : Bonecrusher, one of the Constructicons, who forms the left arm of Devastator

After : Bonecrusher (background) in a scene with Optimus Prime (foreground)

After : And he transform into this ... err...whatever that is.

Blackout

Before : Blackout, one of the Combaticons who forms Bruticus.


After : He still transforms into a helicopter but with a much cooler exterior

Frenzy

Before : Frenzy, One of the cassettes of Soundwave


After : He is all bones now :). Takes over the role of Soundwave and Laserbeak as a Decepticon spy

Scorponok

Before : The giant scorpian which also transforms into a defence base


After : Still a scorpian but much smaller in size


Brawl

Before : Brawl, one of the combaticons, as a tank. He's the left leg of Bruticus.


After : He's now a Ford Mustang Police Car. No surprises that this Ford was cast opposite the GM Chevrolet.

Starscream

Before : The second in command, modelled after the F-15.


After : After removing all the colour and he is still a jet.


Megatron

Before : The proud Decepticon commander who transform into a gun


After : The new mean monster


After : He transforms into a modern spacecraft.

MB : Well, what you're waiting for? Go book those cinema tickets now. You'll just love (or hate) my newly pimped robots.

Signing off ...
Michael Bay

Saturday Kick Around

It was another Saturday afternoon but with hardcourt soccer lined up at 3pm. Yes, at 3pm, under the relentless sweltering heat, with aged bodies and spare tubes around the waist. It was an old ritual we started right after graduation in 2000. We were young and fresh then, terribly missing our daily evening games routine from our hall days and eager to test our meagre skills on a sport we hardly played but greatly enjoy following. But after time, make that 7 years, the ritual soon came to a standstill. Occasionally making a rare appearance when we were able to find 8 people to spare time on a saturday amidst increasingly busy schedules and commitments.

Back to the present, or yesterday; we finally decided to have a game inspite of poor numbers. We were back in Raffles Hall, all seven of us in our sports gear. Our bodies toiled and struggled to keep up with the ball and to find the stamina to last the session. Every ball kicked out of bounds was a chance for us to catch our breath and find respite from the unbearable afternoon sun. Luckily, as the afternoon progressed, the weather started to cool down and we started to enjoy the kick around. We even had a fellow resident join us to even out the number.

That evening we had dinner at the Holland Village XO Noodle shop followed by Swensens Ice cream for dessert as we enjoyed a rare occasion to catch up and reminisce about the good old days.

Random shots of Block 5 Quadrangle. Used to stay in this block in my 1st and 2nd year in the hall.

Up the Eastern Shores

Here’s a write up about the short weekend trip to Kuantan last week.

We, that is Wee Loong, Ge Hau & Wife, plus myself, headed up to Kuantan last Saturday in two cars. Our journey started from Singapore before noon. The skies were overcast and sporadic rain accompanied us throughout our way up.

Our first pit stop was in JB; Taman Sentosa to be more specific. The rain was pouring by then, and we decided to have an early lunch at the popular ‘Bak Kut Teh’ shop. We were soon on our way towards Mersing, which was on the eastern end of Johor. The road there was not too particularly busy, as it passes through numerous oil palm plantations. The slightly winding and hilly double-lane roads make easy driving, save for the occasional need to overtake slow lorries, tank trucks and cars cruising at incredibly slow speeds.

Arriving at Mersing, we made our way towards the jetty, the gateway to Tioman Island. Somehow we guys decided that we were a little hungry and settled for some local fare. Once recharged, we were headed off again, determined to reach our hotel before evening. This time, I was at the wheel of Wee Loong’s white Mazda 3.

This part of our journey took us through the Rompin district, which is where the Taman Negara (National Park) is located. We then hit a lovely stretch of road after passing Nenasi in Pahang. Lovely because the scenery here had tall pine trees lining up the road instead of more oil palms, with the shoreline visible on our right and almost no other vehicles in sight.

We soon reached the old royal town of Pekan which was only about 40km from Kuantan. Here we passed a row of old Chinese shophouses, a white mosque, and the river with the large words ‘PEKAN BANDAR DIRAJA – INDAH DAN MAKMUR’ on the opposite bank. Not having much time to spare, we drove on towards Kuantan.

The traffic was busier on the road to the capital of Pahang. We managed to read the right road signs that got us through the city and towards Swiss Garden hotel, located about 10km north of the city. We almost missed the hotel signage but fortunately Ge Hau spotted it in time or else we would have been lost further down Beserah Road.

The hotel had a nice beach front that faced the South China Sea. We quickly settled in and found time to visit the beach before nightfall. We found the softest sand which was so comfortable to the feet. Almost powdery like. I believe it would be nice just lying on the soft sand, but unfortunately I did not have time to test it out.

Ok, enough words. I'm a bad narrator, so the rest of this post will be accompanied by pictures.

The rest of the road trip gang

From top left (CW) : Mersing stop, Passing Pekan, Dinner at Pak Su, Shophouses in Pekan

We had a late dinner on Saturday night. The original plan was to go over to Kuantan for a bite followed by a visit to the Night Market. However we didn't expect the rain to throw a spanner into our plan. After experiencing the bad traffic in the wet town centre, we decided to head back and have dinner at the Pak Su seafood restaurant which seemed to be quite popular with tourists. The curry fish that we had did not quite match up to expectation though.

The next morning, I thought of waking up early for a bit of morning sunrise photography. But I probably slept through my alarm as I woke up after 7am.

From top left (CW) : Sunrise, more Sunrise, Swiss Garden in the morning glow, Crab creature hiding under a shell

Our plan on Sunday was basically to visit the beaches along the coastline especially the renowned Cherating beach. The beach was located not too far away from where we were staying. However what we found was an almost empty stretch of beach with many run-down kampung styled huts (they call themselves resorts) lining up the beach. Where are the tourists? After a quick nasi campur lunch we headed towards Pantai Chendor, further north. There we found that Club Med was out of bounds to the public and an empty Turtle Sanctuary.

Heading back south we paid a short visit to Tanjung Lumpur Fishing Village and Pantai Batu Hitam (Black Stone Beach) before heading back to the hotel.

From top left (CW) : Food Stall on Cherating beach, An empty stretch on Cherating beach, Pantai Batu Hitam (Black Stone Beach), Tanjung Lumpur fishing village.


That's me engaging in a bit of kite flying at Pantai Batu Hitam.

The next day, we made our way back to JB. We made a short pit stop at the nice scenic spot that we spotted on the way up.

Posing with the cars during our pit stop.

Time for Old Friends

It has been almost 4 years since I saw my old colleagues from Infineon. Last Friday, I had the chance to met them up at Downtown East as they were holding a bbq for their section. It was good to finally catch up with them. They are still pretty much the same wacky group of people that I left behind. I guess you do need a sense of humour to stay in operations department that long.

Trips in June

After a few months of quiet activity, looks like the second half of June is going to get busier. There are two weekend trips out of Singapore lined up in the next few weeks. The first will be this weekend, where I'll join Wee Loong and Ge Hau on a road trip up Malaysia's East coast. It will be a first for me as I have never been to the eastern shores of the peninsular. Finally, I've come out of my shell, crossed over the great central ranges to sample the other half of my country (next I guess will be to cross the Sea to visit the lands below the wind) . We'll probably head towards Kuantan and along the way pay a visit to small towns like Mersing and other coastal towns with names that just escapes me. Any suggestions on what else is worth a visit or at least a drive-past?

Got to borrow a Malaysia-Singapore travel guide at the library today. And it's quite a new edition too. It's amazing what you can find in the Singapore Library. There a many gems waiting to be discovered among the rows of other old and ordinary books. There has been a number of occasions where I find new books that I was eyeing in the book store lying quietly in the local library. Just to list down all these good reads will require a post of its own. Okay, but now back to my trips.

Then at the end of the month, I'll be headed up to KL for an old friend's wedding. Just realised that my past few trips up to the capital has always been to witnessed some childhood friends' marriage. This time it is Pauline's turn. She used to be my next door neighbour in Muar. She and her brother is of the same age as me and my sis, so growing up was never lonely when you know that you have play mates just a holler away.

Will be bringing my 350D along this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some good shots to show rather than the ones from my N73 that has been populating my posts.

Happy Beginnings begin with a Stout

It came down to this. Two drinks. One for the bridegroom, one for the bride (of course, we were kind enough to let her off). A few gulps later, including some anxious moments at the end when the yolk almost proved to be too big an obstacle, Chien Wen prevailed as we wished him our final congatulations and a quiet farewell to his bachelorhood.

Food Log

In a blink of an eye and May is gone. Well to remember the month that just past, here are some of the food we sampled.

Ayam Penyet at Resto Surabaya, Lucky Plaza. Looks like the place is becoming popular with this flattened poultry dish from Indonesia.

Musakka! The only way I like my eggplant. The lamb bits helped too. Oh, this dish was last spotted at Alaturka, Bussorah St.

Sushi, all for a flat rate of 99cents per plate. This was enough to get us to Nihon Mura at revenue House, Novena. Of course, the Small Baked Lobsters and Half Shell Scallop made sure we didn't only got off with the cheap sushi.

Dim Sum buffet at Teahouse ,China Square. The honey char siew in baked pastry was delicious.

The Great Summer Sale

No, I am not talking about the Great Singapore Sale. It is the activity that takes place after the end of the soccer season in Europe that intrigues and excites us soccer fans.

With the European leagues close to an end, or ended for most, the attention now shifts from the soccer pitches to the tabloids and soccer grapevine. Yes, it’s the season-end sale, but without the discounts. The rumour mill is at its busiest now as every available, want-away, unwanted, promising, sought-after, and disgruntled football player is being linked with almost every other club.

With the English Premiership clubs growing richer with all the TV broadcasting and sponsorship money (while we pay more for soccer channel on cable), club managers can now draw up shopping lists and pass them on to their chairmans to draw on their best negotiation skills and opportunistic timing to capture the necessary talents to either push their case for premiership glory, an European spot, or for some, a chance to avoid relegation.

To some soccer fans, the transfer season is even better than the actual game. Very true. If you had played ‘Championship Manager’ before, you’ll know that the wheeling and dealing to bring the unspotted talents and the best players to your club can be more exciting than the actual matches itself. But of course, those games didn’t quite have the visuals to showcase the excitement on the pitch, and those flashing commentaries (of the CM3 era) or the 2-D moving spots(of the CM 2001 and beyond era) can’t quite match a live game.

And what a way to start the summer sale; Manchester United who are often caught in long protracted transfer talks for their targets, has swooped in on three young talents. HARGREAVES. NANI. ANDERSON ABREU. These are the names that will feature prominently in the future. Promising young players who will have to prove themselves to be fit to be called successors to Keane, Giggs and Scholes. As a fan, I am delighted. Can’t wait to see Nani and Anderson in action, especially alongside Ronaldo. Opposing teams will now have three young attacking midfielders, with mazy dribbling skills, running at them with great speed.

Here’s a peek at what you can expect. Nani, the back-flipping star and Anderson, the braided samba star.

And the best part is, Man Utd is not done yet. Now let’s see who the rest of the clubs bring in. The Summer Sale can only get better.