NEW YEAR'S EVE 2006 & VISIT MALAYSIA YEAR 2007 COUNTDOWNS

To break off my chain of my Sydney Part 2, I would like to go ahead with New Year's Eve 2006 Countdown Celebrations in town. How fast time flies and in 2 days time we will be counting down as we welcome the Year 2007 in a special way in every parts of the world.

Malaysians can be proud of as we usher into the New Year 2007 and it marks the beginning of the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 - Celebrating 50 Years of Nationhood. There are many places in the city and in various parts of Malaysia that has parties, concerts, etc. to usher into the year 2007 in style.

Below are the list of places that are being identified and the list will grow from time to time as I receive more official information from people.

1) DATARAN MERDEKA - CANCELLED
2) SURIA KLCC - CANCELLED

This two venues have been called off out of respect for Hari Raya Haji, which falls on the same day.

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Here are the details :

Venue : The Curve,Mutiara Damansara
Date : 31st December 2006 [Sunday]
Time : 5pm sharp onwards
Attire : Black or White clothes ONLY.

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1) The Curve, Mutiara Damansara

~ A carnival-like atmosphere is set to take off with activities that include a concert featuring Jaclyn Victor (Malaysian Idol 1), Reshmonu and other artistes ~

Date: 31st December 2006
Time: 8.30 p.m. onwards
Venue: Entrances of The Curve, IKEA, IKANO, Royal Bintang Hotel & Cineleisure

Please be reminded that traffic jams and road blocks heading to the Curve are to be expected. Try to park at a distance or come early and leave later after the countdown. Road blocks: Entrances of the Curve, IKEA, IKANO, Royal Bintang Hotel Damansara, Cineleisure.

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2) 1 Utama Shopping Centre

~ It’s the time of the year to party! Come join us and the celebrities to welcome the Year 2007 together. Be entertained with international artistes like North, Gary Chao & Genie Chou, Nicholas Teo, Pop Shuvit and many other talents – that are sure to deliver high-octane performance to wow you! Come early with family and friends to witness the spectacular firework at midnight too while we usher in the New Year with big bang. So block your calendar this 31st December 2006 from 7:30pm onwards because 1 Utama is having a date with you! ~

Date: 31st December 2006
Time: 7.30 p.m. onwards
Venue: Central Park Avenue

Approximately 100'000 people to turn-up for this spectacular 1 Utama UCountdown 2007 New Year's Eve concert on December 31st. Please be there early to avoid dissappointments on massive traffic jams heading to 1 Utama Shopping Centre and to the Curve in Mutiara Damansara. For more information, please check out the leaflet.

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3) Penang Golden 2007 New Year

~ MORE than 100,000 people are expected to turn up for the Penang Golden 2007 New Year countdown celebration at Gurney Drive which is set to be a glittering affair. Those coming for the Dec 31 event are encouraged to wear gold-coloured attire to match this year’s ‘Every Body Wears Gold’ theme. ~

Date: 31st December 2006
Time: 5.00 p.m. - 1.00 a.m.
Venue: Gurney Drive

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4) SPLASH 2007 @ Sunway Surf Beach

~ Celebrate the New Year with a Splash! A real beach party in the city. ~

Date: 31st December 2006
Time: 7.00 p.m. onwards
Venue: Sunway Surf Beach
Entrance: The new entrance between Pyramid Tower and Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel

Tickets are also available at the entrance of Sunway Lagoon.

For enquiries, kindly contact +603-5639 0000 or email to ask_lagoon@sunway.com.my

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5) FLOAT PARTY

~ Wanna experience rock climbing in the middle of the pool? Or ride on a see-saw through the waves? How about piloting a spinning alien spaceship on water? Don't believe any of that is possible? You haven't heard it all! ~

Date: 31st December 2006
Time: 6.00 p.m. - 2.00 a.m.
Venue: Bukit Jalil Aquatic Centre
Ticket: RM 55.00

For more information, log on to www.axcess.com.my or www.floatparty.com

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6) Genting Highlands

~ Expect our very own local Chinese artistes to take the stage as revellers awaits to usher into the New Year 2007 with a massive fireworks show takes place after the show. ~

Date: 31st December 2006
Time: 9.30 p.m. till late
Venue: First World Plaza

Entry is free

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7) Bintang Walk

~ Street party and concert featuring local Chinese singers with fireworks display at the stroke of midnight. ~

Date: 31st December 2006
Time: 7.00 p.m. onwards
Venue: Bukit Bintang

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Should you know more information on other countdown spots, please inform me as soon as possible via email at wnka86@yahoo.com

SYDNEY 2006 (Part 1 - Day 1)

It didn't take me too long to get to my next post of my trip to Sydney knowing I have not much time to spare in the year 2006. This month I am going to forego my rules of 1 post = 1 day because I have many post to go up still.

My trip to Sydney came the day after my Results Announcement Ceremony. It was from 17th December 2006 till 22nd December 2006. Though only 6 days 5 nights but it was a worth trip there.

1st day - Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Kingsford Smith International Airport, Sydney

Flight MH 121 - KLIA to Sydney (0945 [M'sia time] - 2200 [Sydney time])

My inflight lunch - Nasi Lemak

Immigration Clearance at Kingsford Smith Int. Airport (No cameras allowed but I risked it)

Limousine transfer to my hotel. Don't ask me why, please?

Initially, the hotels booked by our travel agency was fully booked and they put our family in 2 rooms instead. That's not what my dad wanted. At the same time, my dad submitted his leave application to his boss, his boss saw that my dad wanted to go to Sydney for holiday in the form. So he decided to booked us in Star City Hotels and Casinos where my dad and his colleagues went there last September for business purposes. My dad's boss is a hardcore gambler in Sydney so all arrangements were done by my dad's boss. This is how the Limousine transfer came into picture.

THE APARTMENT:

Now that we are living in the Star City Hotel & Casino (it's something like Genting where there's a huge casinos in it), let me give you an overview of the place we lived in for the next 5 nights. We lived in the serviced apartment with 3 bedrooms (Master, medium & small) with 3 toilets, a kitchen, a dining hall, a living room, 3 televisions, a balcony overlooking the city of Sydney and Darling Harbour was just in front of us).

For more information, please visit the Star City Hotel & Casino.
Address: Star City Hotel & Casino, 80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont NSW 2009

The medium room which I shared with my brother

Upstairs balcony overlooking downstairs entrance and the dark area is the Kitchen

The master bedroom which my parents slept in

The WC and the bathtub in the Master Bedroom

The sink area and the shower stall in the Master Bedroom

The toilet which we siblings shared since there is no toilet in our rooms

The Kitchen (it's fully equipped)

The dining hall

Since we just arrived late at night and we only had our dinner at 11pm (Sydney time), we decided to look for Chinese food to fill our stomach. Jetlag and we were so tired to search for food, so we ended up in this restaurant. Hong Kie food, not bad but pricey. Roughly about AU$ 8.00 - AU$ 10.00 a plate on those shown below.

The restaurant - not sure of its name

Black Pepper Bean Curd Rice - my bro ordered

Chinese Fried Rice (not Yong Chow to them) - my parents shared

My Char Siew Fun in Star City (our dinner on 1st night)

Because I was too hungry enjoying my food, I didn't manage to capture my sister's mee hoon soup.

The back of Star City - fountain

My mum and my brother

Me sitting beside the fountain

Star City - Pyrmont Al Porto


~ End of Part 1 - Day 1 ~

[Next:] Part 2 - Day 2: 18th December 2006
to be continued . . .

ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESULTS CEREMONY 2006

It has been quite some time since I touched my blog. Final exams and then my trip to Sydney and then Christmas, all kept me so tied up. Let me rush all here.

The announcement of results ceremony was held on 16th December 2006, a day after our final examination concluded (15th December 2006). FAST huh? Well they only tell us the mentions but not our marks. The scrolls are just the mentions only.

The trophies for Top Students

Me receiving my scroll from Monsieur Pierre Rouillon, the President of the Examination Board
(sorry for the picture quality. Will get a clearer one from my friend soon)

Craig Lee receiving his scroll with "Very Honourable Pass With Congratulations from the Jury"

The moment that everyone was waiting for. Eagerly waiting to know who will be crowned as the top student of Brevet de Technicien Superieur, Decembre 2006. When the projection unveils, the crowd stood up and gave a thunderous applause to Watt Miew Ling (aka. Stephanie). Before the announcement was made, we knew it already because she was the last recipient who have not receive any scrolls at all.

Stephanie bagging her Marc Combes Trophies with her certificates and her lovely smile

Just as Craig Lee mentioned in his blog, it was a mixed feelings of happiness and sadness. We were happy because the final exams are over and we received our Higher Diploma in Hotel Management and the sadness is that some of them are leaving us for good and moving on a seperate path.

The top student with her classmates (and my too)...where's me, peeps?

Some of them remained and will continue their degree (final year) next year. I could hardly held back my tears knowing some of them who told me it's their last day here in college. Everything in life there is a beginning and there is an ending. Moving on a seperate path in life is part and parcel of our journey.

It's the end of our journey of Higher Diploma in Hotel Management but its a beginning of my journey to obtain my degree (Honours) next year and for some of them working life is their beginning.

Whatever it is, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of my friends whom I have journeyed together for two years a Blessed Christmas and may the New Year 2007 brings a fruitful meaningful new life to all of you.


Your loving friend,
William Ng

FRESHFACES Beach Party 2006

After the Justea Battle of the Bands in the Curve, we are moving on with another hot and wet party. Oh yes, if you are free on 15th December 2006, come on and head down to Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach for the Beach RAVE - FRESHFACES Beach Party organized by MYC!, sponsored by Bausch & Lomb together with L'Oreal Paris Malaysia.

- Live Stage Performance by Johnson Wee, Winner of Project Superstar
- Live Singing by Jewel
- Live Spin by DJ Luqe, Zouk Ghetto Heaven DJ
- Hip Hop Dance Performance by Urban Groove
- Fashion Show by QuikSilver & Roxy
- Graffiti Wall Painting
- Goodie Bags for 1st Party Goers
- Free Entrance With Invitation

Date : 15th December 2006 (Friday)
Time : Door Opens from 5pm-7pm
Venue : Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach
Attire : Prepare to get Wet

You want to get hold of the tickets for this event? You can cut it out from MYC December 2006 issue. A ticket admits 2 person at a time only. You need more extra tickets, do drop me an email (include your name & hp no.) for me to get hold of you for the tickets.

All Taylor's University College and Taylor's College or any Taylor's Education Group (TEG) students, please grab your tickets from me too as well. Limit to 4 tickets per person only. Thank you.

You may also stand a chance to win yourself an O2 Stealth PDA Phone and you won't want to miss this opportunity.

BE SEXY & GET WET AT THE HOTTEST & WETTEST PARTY OF THE YEAR.

ST. NICHOLAS? SANTA CLAUS? ARE THEY THE SAME?

St. Nicholas? Santa Claus? Are they the same person or are they not the same? What do you think? On December 6 every year, the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of St. Nicholas. Below, do check it out who is this big sized man who wears red and has a long white beard that every children loves to approach be it in the malls or in parties or anywhere during the seson of Christmas. Let the spirit of Christmas in the Humblerboy's website begins.

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How did the kindly Christian saint, good Bishop Nicholas, become a roly-poly red-suited American symbol for merry holiday festivity and commercial activity?

The first Europeans to arrive in the New World brought St. Nicholas. Vikings dedicated their cathedral to him in Greenland. On his first voyage, Columbus named a Haitian port for St. Nicholas on December 6, 1492. In Florida, Spaniards named an early settlement St. Nicholas Ferry, now known as Jacksonville. However, St. Nicholas had a difficult time during the 16th century Protestant Reformation which took a dim view of saints. Even though both reformers and counter-reformers tried to stamp out St. Nicholas-related customs, they had very little long-term success; only in England were the religious folk traditions of Christmas permanently altered. (It is ironic that fervent Puritan Christians began what turned into a trend to a more secular Christmas observance.) Because the common people so loved St. Nicholas, he survived on the European continent as people continued to place nuts, apples, and sweets in shoes left beside beds, on windowsills, or before the hearth.

Colonists came to America after the Reformation in the 1500s. They were primarily Puritans and other Protestant reformers who did not bring Nicholas traditions to the New World. What about the Dutch? Although it is nearly universally reported that the Dutch did bring St. Nicholas to New Amsterdam, scholars find limited evidence of such traditions in Dutch New Netherland.

Colonial Germans in Pennsylvania held the feast of St. Nicholas, and several accounts do have St. Nicholas visiting New York Dutch on New Years' Eve. Patriots formed the Sons of St. Nicholas in 1773, not to honor Bishop Nicholas, but rather as a non-British symbol to counter the English St. George societies. This St. Nicholas society was similar to the Sons of St. Tammany in Philadelphia. Not exactly St. Nicholas, the children's gift-giver.

After the American Revolution, New Yorkers remembered with pride the colony's nearly-forgotten Dutch roots. John Pintard, influential patriot and antiquarian, who founded the New York Historical Society in 1804, promoted St. Nicholas as patron saint of both society and city. In January 1809, Washington Irving joined the society and on St. Nicholas Day that year he published the satirical fiction, Knickerbocker's History of New York, with numerous references to a jolly St. Nicholas character. This was not a saintly bishop, rather an elfin Dutch burgher with a clay pipe. These delightful flights of imagination are the origin of the New Amsterdam St. Nicholas legends: that the first Dutch emigrant ship had a figurehead of St. Nicholas; that St. Nicholas Day was observed in the colony; that the first church was dedicated to him; and that St. Nicholas comes down chimneys to bring gifts. Irving's work was regarded as the "first notable work of imagination in the New World."

The New York Historical Society held its first St. Nicholas anniversary dinner on December 6, 1810. John Pintard commissioned artist Alexander Anderson to create the first American image of Nicholas for the occasion. Nicholas was shown in a gift-giving role with children's treats in stockings hanging at a fireplace. The accompanying poem ends, "Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend! To serve you ever was my end, If you will, now, me something give, I'll serve you ever while I live."

The jolly elf image received a big boost in 1823, from a poem destined to become immensely popular, "A Visit from St. Nicholas," now better known as "The Night Before Christmas."

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf. . . .

Washington Irving's St. Nicholas strongly influenced the poem's portrayal of a round, pipe-smoking, elf-like St. Nicholas. The poem generally has been attributed to Clement Clark Moore, a professor of biblical languages at New York's Episcopal General Theological Seminary. However, a case has been made by Don Foster in Author Unknown, that Henry Livingston actually penned it in 1807 or 1808. Livingston was a farmer/patriot who wrote humorous verse for children. In any case, "A Visit from St. Nicholas" became a defining American holiday classic. No matter who wrote it, the poem has had enormous influence on the Americanization of St. Nicholas.

Other artists and writers continued the change to an elf-like St. Nicholas, "Sancte Claus," or "Santa Claus," unlike the stately European bishop. In 1863, political cartoonist Thomas Nast began a series of annual black-and-white drawings in Harper's Weekly, were based on the descriptions found in the poem and Washington Irving's work. These drawings established a rotund Santa with flowing beard, fur garments, and an omnipresent clay pipe. As Nast drew Santas until 1886, his work had considerable influence in forming the American Santa Claus. Along with appearance changes, the saint's name shifted to Santa Claus—a natural phonetic alteration from the German Sankt Niklaus and Dutch Sinterklaas.

Santa was then portrayed by dozens of artists in a wide variety of styles, sizes, and colors. However by the end of the 1920s, a standard American Santa—life-sized in a red, fur-trimmed suit—was emerging from the work of N. C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell and other popular illustrators. In 1931 Haddon Sundblom began thirty-five years of Coca-Cola Santa advertisements that popularized and firmly established Santa as an icon of contemporary commercial culture. This Santa was life-sized, jolly, and wore the now familiar red suit. He appeared in magazines, on billboards, and shop counters, encouraging Americans to see Coke as the solution to "a thirst for all seasons." By the 1950s Santa was turning up everywhere as a benign source of beneficence, endorsing an amazing range of consumer products. This commercial success led to the North American Santa Claus being exported around the world where he threatens to overcome the European St. Nicholas, who has retained his identity as a Christian bishop and saint.

It's been a long journey from the Fourth Century Bishop of Myra, St. Nicholas, who showed his devotion to God in extraordinary kindness and generosity, to America's jolly Santa Claus. However, if you peel back the accretions he is still Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, whose caring surprises continue to model true giving and faithfulness.

There is growing interest in reclaiming the original saint in the United States to help restore the spiritual dimension of this festive time. For indeed, St. Nicholas, lover of the poor and patron saint of children, is a model of how Christians are meant to live. A bishop, Nicholas put Jesus Christ at the center of his life, his ministry, his entire existence. Families, churches, and schools are embracing true St Nicholas traditions as one way to claim the true center of Christmas—the birth of Jesus. Such a focus helps restore balance to increasingly materialistic and stress-filled Advent and Christmas seasons.

BATTLE OF THE BANDS 2006

Do you have anything to do on the 8th December 2006 (Friday) @ 7pm onwards? If not, come on over to Cineleisure Piazza, The Curve Mutiara Damansara for the Yeo's JusTea InterCollege University Battle of the Bands 2006.

It's where the most happening young groove crowd in the Kland Valley will be to withness the most creative music with absolutely no rules at all.

Can't get hold of free tickets from FlyFM? Let me offer you from my side with 6 tickets each.

All you need to do is to email me at wnka86@yahoo.com and the reason you want to go. Please provide me your Name and H/P No. which I could get hold of you for the tickets.

A DAY TRIP TO MY HOMETOWN, MUAR

Yesterday (2nd Dec) my Trial exams just over. But the misery will begin again on 6th December, this coming Wednesday with my Final Exams.

Tomorrow (4th Dec), my trials results will be out. Cross my hands and pray. But it was my family (except my bro) who decided to go back to our hometown (the town where I first saw the world) today (3rd Dec). So, here let me share with you my trip experience.

Wantan Mee at the roadside

The Muar Wantan Mee (3 Large & 1 Small bowl = RM 11.50)

2 glasses of Sugarcane (RM 1 each) + 2 glasses of Barley (80 cents each)

Total: RM 15.10 for our lunch for 4 persons? Not in KL but in Muar, Johor.

The ever famous Kedai Kuih Yong Sheng (hyperlink to its website too) in Muar, Johor. What many tourist wants in Muar is the otak-otak and what is famous in this Yong Sheng Confectionery.

Tourists from all over Malaysia (not including me lah...I'm a Muarian mah but living in PJ now) as well as Singaporeans will flock in this shop just to shop for its famous "heong piah" and many others. If you are in Muar, do check it out their outlet:

YONG SHENG CONFECTIONERY SDN. BHD.
30, Jalan Sayang, 84000
Muar, Johor, West Malaysia.
Tel: +606-9521362 Fax: +606-9527202 URL: http://www.yongsheng.com.my

Carrot Cake (Chai Tau Kueh) from Muar -
RM 2.00 (Large Packet with Extra Eggs)

Some other "kueh" (I know in Hokkien of course but not in English)

All this you can get in this street call "Tam Chiak Kueh" (literal translation means "greedy street" but in the true fact is that it is like our Jalan Alor (Wai Sek Kai) in KL.

Basically my trip of Muar began from PJ at about 12.30pm and we reached at almost 2.00p.m. After "shopping" about and visiting relatives we left at about 5.00p.m. We just pick whatever we wanted and off we go.

Oh yes, we never left Muar, Johor without our otak-otak. Our favourite famous Muar Bakariah Otak-otak. My dad bought back 100 packets of frozen otak-otak and 40 sticks of grilled otak-otak.

One of my friend studying in Sunway who happens to be from my same kampung (knew him through my cousins) plans to sell otak-otak in Sunway and Taylor's respectively to lecturers and students. Maybe we will try it after my final exams.

Till then, check back often.