Prime...

I finally managed to get my Optimus Prime leader class today. The guy told me that I can now sell it for a profit. It's good that I reserved it 2 weeks ago, after I bought Bumblebee from him. I called up one of the hobby shops in Sungai Wang and they were not willing to let it go for anything less than RM 300.00. Talk about price mongering. These Transformers are selling like hot cakes.

A week ago, I was told by Sow Hon that I could pick up Star Scream in Toys R Us, which was exactly what I did. However it was not the one with the movie colours, this F22 Raptor came in the Generation 1 Star Scream colours. Kinda brings back memories.

I'll try to take more photos once I have the time. As for Prime, I've decided to leave him in the box for the time being...

it was filled with supercars

I took the day off today after having a weekend of training at the office. Somehow, the company loves sending us and killing our weekends off. I went to Peter's early this morning to have the car checked out. Apparently after changing the CVJoint, there was still a clunk noise upon making a full lock. Peter had a look at the car and test drove it. He suspected it was the absorber or the mounts. Turned out, he was right. The mountings on the suspension had come loose, which allowed a lot of free play on the absorber. Hence, the clunk noise when I turned a full lock. He tightened the bolts and we went for a test drive. No more clunks. It was peaceful once again.

After that, I went down to Segambut to meet up with Merv and Bob, who were at Rueben's workshop. Now, it's been sometime since I've been there, the last time it was really like your typical workshop. It was cramped and dark. Nevertheless, it was filled with supercars. Now, the place has been spruced up and a lot of renovation has gone into it. The store upstairs has been converted into an office, which looks a lot more contemporary. Now, the place was still packed with supercars and hypercars. The last time, there was the F355, followed by a lot of Porsches and BMWs. Now, it's turned into a place for a lot of valueable classic cars and yes, the F355 was there once again. This time, I managed to take pics! Enjoy...





You know, there are a few things that you like and when you actually get to see it in real-life, it's really not the same as having a pin-up on your wall. The Ferrari F355 is one of those things that I really, really like. This is the baby Ferrari, with a 3.5 liter V8 engine, it's also the cheapest to maintain and run. You could drive it as a daily driver and it will not kill your legs. This one however was a manual version. The one that I would like to own would be the one with the F1 sequential gearbox model, simply called the F355 F1. Sigh, what a sight, it's a marvel and a work of art. The engineers and designers really know how to design a car and you'd be surprise how hard it is to find the door handle, which is cleverly hidden behind the side vents. Imagine in an emergency, trying to run and get into your car in a hurry, you'd be fiddling with the comfounded thing till you find it, "Brilliant!"

I guess sometimes beauty superceeds practicality. You see, when the engineers and designers at Ferrari designed this car, it wasn't meant to be practical. It was a sports coupe, 2 seater and goes very fast. This one came standard with powered windows and it had many power assisted equipment. It made driving a supercar easy, you could use this as a daily driver.










This one, ahh yes, the prancing horse. The arch rival of Lamborghini, the legendary Testarossa. To be honest, the Lambo had all the style, upward swinging doors compared to the regular doors that the Ferrari used. Nevertheless, these hypercars had V12 engines and that alone makes them legendary. The sound and squeel at high revs made the engine sounded sweet and divine. I hardly come across these cars anymore. This one had the engine removed. I didn't get a chance to look into the interior as it was still jacked up and I didn't want risking the whole car falling onto the floor. However from the side, the tan coloured leather was still in prestine condition. Lovely...

Ever seen the engine bay of a Lamborghini Diablo? Here's a nice example, purple colour. You can't get more hypercar than this! I can still recall that when I was young, I used to have the posters on my wall. Today, I'm looking at one right in the flesh. The hydraulics on the scissors doors still work and the odometer on this Lambo, you wouldn't believe it if I told you. It had clocked less than 2,000km. This one really didn't see much tarmac at all.

The prancing horse and the raging bull, all under one roof. What more could you ask for?

Here are some prestine examples of a much sought after classic, the Rolls Royce. There was a Silver Shadow II, a coupe based on the Silver Spirit and a couple of a few more Rollers there as well. The amazing part is that these cars had about 14,000 miles on the odometer and that tells you how much action they have seen on the road. These are probably stored in the garage for exhibition purposes. When I opened the door, the smell of the leather was still there! It smells like it just rolled off the factory yesterday. I couldn't believe it as these cars were like 30 years old. Talk about quality stuff!

Bumbleebee

Finally, after much searching I have managed to purchase the elusive Bumblebee Camaro Concept 2008. This is one tough find and it was truly worth it. I managed to purchase this one off eBay, and he delivered the merchandise as well.

Barricade

Damn, it took me forever to locate this Barricade movie replica. I have searched high and low for this. Sow Hon brought his to work on Wednesday and I knew I had to get one. Not only that Barricade was based on a Saleen pursuit car, it was a Mustang. I saw it and I knew I had to buy it.

So I rushed to Times Square this afternoon, walked the whole place and I managed to find one place selling it on the 7th floor. Or was it the 8th? I lost count. Yen was busy cutting her hair, while I worked my legs to find a shop that sold it.

Here are some of the pics that I took of it.

Al Diafah

I took a day off on Monday to laze back after the hectic moving and supposed systems testing on Saturday night. We stayed back till 10.30pm, and the IT boffins still could not get the network up. I decided, since it'll be up and running on Monday, I think I had better take a leave for the first day of work at the new site. Gremlins would start appearing.

So I called up Yaz and Merv, arranged to have lunch with them. Yaz recommended this place called Al Diafah, located somewhere in Sri Petaling, quite close to the store. The owner has spent RM 2mil on this place and I thought it'll be a place to check out. Of course not to be rude, I didn't start snapping pictures of the interior, though I had a feeling that the manager would not mind. The place is filled with small items directly imported from the Middle East, all the gold pots and fittings. Very nice place and it had class to it. The food was quite reasonable, we ordered Hommus, something that I've always wanted to try, but have not had the chance. Best part, this cost like RM 6.00 per plate. The set lunch, which we had was the mixed gril, a piece of nicely grilled lamb, flavourful. A piece of chicken, seasoned with tumeric and two pieces of nicely seasoned beef. This was only RM 12.90, plus a drink called Vimto, something like Ribena mixed with F&N Strawberry. There was also a complimentary dessert, chopped fruits dipped in Rose Syrup.

The meal was good and I could not complain about the price. It was cheap and judging by the amount of Chinese patrons there at that time, I knew it was going to be reasonable. You know, it's funny, we Chinese love to eat and we love bargains. You know if there are a lot of Chinese in a restaurant, you know that the price is right. Especially this place. After lunch, Merv headed off, and Yaz and I headed to Megamall for a little coffee.

We tried D'lish, just opened right opposite Starbucks. I had this Baked Banana Cheese cupcake, I forget the full name and it was just delicious. However, it was no substitute for the Banoffee Pie from Delicious, but it was still something delightful.

Independence day

Once again, our proud nation has celebrated it's Independence day. The 50th, so after 50 years what have we achieved?

Come to think of it, I have not celebrated Merdeka for 5 years. It all started when I left for Brisbane, Australia in 2003. I came back in 2004 and after that I was working for FedEx, serving the Singapore market. So every 31st of August, I'm busy working away in the office.

I have forgotten how the parade looks like and what's changed. I recall there would be armed forces and cultural events taking part in the parade. I could remember that there were jets soaring in the skies. All that is just a memory now that I'm forced to work on every public holiday in Malaysia that does not coincide with Singapore.

Today's moving day in the office. We're shifting from Tower A and B to Tower C in Uptown 5. Just above McDonald's now. Sigh, my schedule's at 1200hrs and I'm to supervise during that hour. It gets even more interesting, tonight there'll be a systems test once they've moved the server room. So if they buggered up the connections, come Monday, we'll have no operations. This will be interesting indeed.