Track blast on the 1st and 2nd March

Hi guys, the date for this event is nearing and I can't seem to contain the excitement... In fact, tomorrow is the initiation!!!

So here are some updates from my good friend tougeking (adapted from his site). Please hear him out:

"For the participants:

Please arrive at 8am for registration.
Track briefing will start shortly after registration.
Please make sure your car is mechanically sound, with no oil leaks.
Please secure your battery.
Please bring helments.
Although it is not necessary, but it'll be good idea to have a fire-extinguisher secured inside your car.
Please pay attention to the flags and obey them!Have fun!

- adapted from tougeking.blogspot.com"

Here's a track layout for those in Groups 2 & 3 whom might wanna plan for the best attack route!





So guys, keep these tips in mind and I'll see you there for the track attack! Cheers and drive safe.

Carnival Rukun Negara at PISA, Pg

This past weekend, there was a Carnival Rukun Negara held in conjunction with the upcoming elections at the Penang International Sports Arena. I was there as an ad-hoc helper, bringing the cars out for petrol and tire changes in exchange for free drinks and first hand view of all the action going on :P

The drifters there were very friendly and helpful in helping me learn a few tricks of the trade and giving me taxi rides, one of which were Tee Wee Jin and Ariff Johanis. Mervyn, Loyai, Along, Rudy, and Johan were some of the other drifters around. Alex was there as pit crew due to his car still being under modifications while Victor and Mike were also there to support and help out. Nice to see you touge.com guys again after soooo long since my work had ramped up and I'd been missing out on TTs.

This is Alex (MonsterV6) whom joined Victor and myself on a night out in town before the event.. He was feeling sad that his car wasn't here, so we thought we'd cheer him up with a little tour of Penang's "little Bangkok" (or was it bang-cock??? *hehehe*). It seemed to work! Check out that monster grin on his face!

Here are some of the pics I managed to snap in the midst of all the commotion and crowd that the sounds and smoke were drawing in!
Johan's newly acquired Laurel previously belongs to Jane. Beaut car which swept closest to the barriers and actually slightly scraped the barrier on the final day for a drastic finish!

Marvyn's beautifully done up Duke A31 and Along's drag.. er.. drift A31 :P

Loyai's smooth sounding RB-powered A31, sadly he was facing some tech difficulties on drift day.

Rudy's very rare AE86 coupe!

Ariff's Skyline R32. Great car.. Superb driver. Great show Ariff, I hope to see you again soon ya.

Tee Wee Jin's sleek 180SX with a monkey-of-a-driver :D

C'mon... Just lookit' him jumping around in all that tire smoke!

Oh! It also has b-e-a-utiful PIAA integrated headlights.

I had great company from Tee whom accompanied me through the event and we had lots of chats. I'll definitely look you up when I'm down in KL bro. Thanks again for the ride and entertainment.

Even Dzal the cyclops was there looking through his great big eye... See you in Ipoh bro. Take care.

It was a great event with lotsa smoke and sound. The drifters were fantastic crowd pullers and of course Wanbra the ever entertaining MC extroadinaire! He was the chattiest fellow I'd ever met with witty comments and entertaining remarks. Great show Wan, but pity you standing in the hot sun all that while.

Kudos to all the participants and organizers for a successful event.

p.s. Every drift car (other than Tee's and Ariff's) had one principle of the Rukun Negara each stuck on the bonnet.

Confirmed quake!!!

The tremors were confirmed by geologists as a 7.5magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatera.

Thankfully, there are no apparent dangers of a tsunami.

God bless!

Earthquake on the island???

I'd just felt some tremors while sat at my desk just now around 4.00+p.m. Some colleagues felt it too... I guess we'll have to wait for tomorrow's news to find out.

Stay tuned!

MISTAKES!!!

If a barber makes a mistake, It's a
New Style

If a driver makes a mistake, It is a
New Path

If a engineer makes a mistake , It is a
New Venture

If parents makes a mistake, It is a
New Generation

If a politician makes a mistake, It is a
New Law

If a scientist makes a mistake, It is a
New Invention

If a tailor makes a mistake, It is a
New Fashion

If a teacher makes a mistake, It is a
New Theory

If our boss makes a mistake, It is a
New Idea

If an employee makes a mistake, It is a "MISTAKE!!!"

This is for all of us behind a desk 8hrs a day!!!

Fo Guang Shan, Dong Zen temple

I had recently visited the Fo Guang Shan, Dong Zen temple in Jenjarom, Kuala Langat. This place was by far the largest monastery I'd seen so far with immense structures and architecture erected. There was also a beautifully landscaped garden that even grew orchids at such low altitudes (just imagine the cooling needed).

Lookit how huge it is!
A beautiful gateway enveloped in creeper plants

This tree is flooded with wishes of people that hope for miracles, just a glimpse of its canopy shows just that!

There was even a huge stage erected, the Chinese call this "koh tai", for use during occasions

The beautiful Lumbini Garden of Dong Zen

Here's a panorama view of the gardens

And as mentioned, the orchids with their intricate cooling system

This was a special hall dedicated to the lord Buddha. It was beautifully lighted and air-conditioned. There was also a sign at the door which states "no incense beyond this point"

Finally, a map to the entire compound of the Fong Guang Shan, Dong Zen temple. Huge ain't it?

Upon my return, it was sine qua non to this blog that I Google'd the FGS monastic order for a more in depth look. And here's what I found :

From Wikipedia :

Fo Guang Shan (Chinese: 佛光山; pinyin: Fóguāngshān; literally "Buddha's Light Mountain") is an international Chinese Mahayana Buddhist monastic order that has gained a worldwide presence, and has chapters around the world. The headquarters of Fo Guang Shan, located in Kaohsiung, is the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. The organisation itself is also one of the largest charity organizations in Taiwan. The order also calls itself the International Buddhist Progress Society.
Founded in 1967 by Venerable Master Hsing Yun, a renowned Chinese Buddhist monk and scholar, the order promotes Humanistic Buddhism, a modern Chinese Buddhist philosophy developed through the 20th Century, and made popular by this and other modern Chinese Buddhist orders. Humanistic Buddhism aims to make Buddhism relevant in the world and in peoples lives and hearts. Like most modern Chinese Buddhist organizations, the ordination lineage is from the Rinzai Zen (Chinese: 臨濟宗; pinyin: Línjìzōng) school. However, Fo Guang Shan declares clearly that it is an "amalgam of all Eight Schools of Chinese Buddhism" (八宗兼弘), including but not limited to Pureland. In this sense, it is a monastic order, and not a doctrinal school of thought per se.

And here's a link to some pictures on fotopages of the FGS : http://enzochang.fotopages.com/?entry=372743

It's prevalent that the FGS is a worldwide order and I'd just witnessed one of it's many monuments :)

Sweet!

Vesso Chocolate at Jln Kampung

On a recent trip to KL-Seremban area, I had a visit to this shop full of choccies!!!
This shop is called Vesso, located at Jln Kampung. It was a bit pricey but the truffles were excellent!!! I only had the handmade ones 'tho, as the prices did not justify those in the mass produced boxes. Almost similarly priced and I get to pick my selection... Why not eh?

Paintball park

I was on my way to fetch A when I saw this paintball park just by the road leading to Bukit Minyak. At the junction turning off to Taman Sukun.
It looked quite quiet but interesting as it had many obstacles. I may not be a paintball fanatic but the thought of shooting someone just intrigues me :)
Here are some pics of the place -->

Girl's Neo burnt down, Proton denies claim!

This girl had a beautiful and well cherished Proton Satria Neo:

It got burnt down after a service at an "authorized" Proton service centre:

Now there's no promise of compensation for this incident but on the other hand, the service centre has offered to repair the car under the girl's insurance (meaning all NCD will be anulled) and she has to buy a new Neo from THAT service centre!!! WTF???

Imagine, you borrow a friends phone to make a call then break it.

Then you offer to buy him a new one, from which you charge him "RM200", which is the price of the new phone~!!!

Your friend would probably wallop you for it!

Further updates on the situation can be read at:

http://jennihsurf.net/

*pics and format adapted from tougeking.blogspot.com*

Defensive driving with Sean Khoo on 15/Mar or 16/Mar

This is an excerpt from Tougeking's blog:

"Folks, we will be conducting a Defensive Driving Course in conjunction with the infamous Sean Khoo. Sean is a very difficult man to track down, so this is a rare occasion. If you are a motorsports enthusiast, clueless new driver, think-you-are-better-than-god-expert-driver, car dealer, or any car nut, this course will be a lot of fun, and it will come in handy when you get into an emergency driving situation.

Who is Sean, you asked?

SEAN KHOOCONSULTANT :
Chief Instructor Drive Wise Sdn Bhd
Safety Car Driver for Sepang International Circuit
Safety Car Driver for Asian Festival of Speed (AFOS)
Fast Intervention for Sepang International Circuit
Chief Instructor for Lotus Cars Club of Malaysia
Chief Instructor for St John Ambulance of Malaysia
Shell and BP/Castrol Approved Training provider

Sean attended many courses and taught many as well. I was having a hard time deciding if I should list his full experience here, but seriously, it was too long :D !

So here's the link to download his CV.

Anyway, here are details of the Defensive Driving Course:
Venue: Kg Gajah, Dato' Sagor Track
Time: March 15th (Sat) OR March 16th (Sun) 2008starting at 9am (1 day course, choose 3/15 or 3/16)
Fee: RM750 per studentCar: Bring your own car
Payment details:The Rigpa Centre
MBB account no : 5081 7761 1306(Pre-payment required before the 10th of March.)
A certificate of attendance will be issued upon completion of the course.
(Snacks will be served in the morning, followed by lunch later in the day.)

Questions? Call Kenny @ 017 5355 123 or Call Tougeking @ 016 50 666 00.

Update 1: March 15th (Sat) is almost full.

Please sign up early to avoid disappointment."

For all those whom are serious into the driving scene, this would be a great way of properly "introducing" yourself into the world of driving. It is a great eye opener and a fantastic learning experience to learn and be guided from one of the best drivers around our lovely homeland.

I for one will definitely be attending his course! Hope to see you all there.

No smokes at work!

My office HR just decided to ban smoking during working hours. If that's bad enough, they also banned us (workers) from making our much beloved java (coffee) during working hours. I mean, how much time can we waste making coffee when having a cuppa would quench our fix? Plus, the caffeine and nicotine helps for those addicts.

I was just pissed at this announcement and decided to take a look see around the net for such office culture and after looking around the WWW for some time, it seems that a couple of large dot-com companies are promoting a freer working lifestyle with "privatised" work spaces. Some even went on until the extent of allowing small pets to be brought in. They ain't losing money from doing these.

I believe that the more freedom is provided and the more relaxed staff are, the more productive they tend to be. That's just me though.

Gold Sparkling!

I came across a beautiful bottle of drink when one of my uncles brought it home for a family dinner.

It's sparkling (fizzy) wine with GOLD FLAKES in it! The wine was not anything special and it tasted bland to slightly bitter due to the gas used to make it fizz. The only thing wonderful about it is the gold flakes swimming around inside :)

It's called the Blue Nun, but I can't imagine why... May be German nuns indulgence? :P

The front label... With a notice to "enjoy with 22 carat gold leaf"~!!!

The rear label.

Manufacturer's logo.

Look at all those flakes in there... I shook it a little so that we could all have a good look at the flakes.

Drop me a comment and let me know if there are other funky drinks you know of.

CNY Celebrations

The recent CNY holidays were just fun filled full of laughter, joy and good eats!

The chinese tradition of the enjoyment of food is undeniably the most intense. We gather around a hot-pot (steamboat) for non-stop makan to gather family members, we cook fervently for prayers then eat everything after, and every house you visit has good eats and drinks always! CNY is just such a binge that I wanted to share with you all some snaps of such examples... All you fellas still stuck overseas... Well tough! Just drool then... Kekeke... :)

Mandarin oranges are a must at every CNY as it simbolizes gold!

The table has been set for prayers.

And the dining table is where it all goes after the prayers!

Seeing that there are many "specialty" dishes here with some that differ with family. So here's a simple breakdown of what I get to makan at CNY...

First up is braised "Fatt Choy with Mushrooms" in oyster sauce. Fatt choy is a must at CNY as its name is similar to "Prosperity". Fatt choy is the black fungus strands strewn all over the mushrooms (which are just there to add body to the dish).

Next up is "Roast Pork" which we get from my 5th grand-uncle (he's into this business) and its shiny golden skin is fantastic-ally cruncheeeeee!!! Excellent stuff!

"Lor Bak" is a specialty of my grand-aunty (can't recall which hierarchy) whom the entire family gets our lor bak supply from. It's basically roughly minced pork in 5-spice powder with a little coriander for zest and some water chestnuts for some crunch! Mmmm-mmmmm.... Yummy...

Then this is my mom's signature dish, the "Jiu Hu Char". The name translates as stir-fried cuttlefish. But this dish is actually finely sliced (sliced mind you, not shaven. So imagine the knife-work!) carrots, "bang kwang" (an almost tasteless root-type bulb) which absorbs flavor, and mushrooms with... of course, cuttlefish! Jiu hu char is cooked in large portions with ample to spare. The amazing thing about this dish is that as you fry it when warming up, it dries a little each time and the more flavorsome it gets. So the last remaining plate of this dish is when it tastes best! Good things eh... Can't have much of it in this case :P

This last dish, "Or Ko" (yam paste), that I'm posting is an ancient recipe from my family since my great-great-grandmother's time. It's a savoury dish made of very thick starch. It contains yummy prawns, yam and crab meat if you like! Taken on its own, it tastes of a chewy seafood delight. This can also be taken with "fatt choy with mushrooms" for a more full bodied taste.

The following are hot pots (steamboats) at different places.

This one is at my grandma's for our family reunion

And this one was at my girlfriend's place for their reunion... I was hungry :P

Yummy right? I can't wait 'till next year to enjoy all the yummy stuff... Good eats to all!

Silver Banana brakes serviced.

The Silver Banana had seen better days since the track attack at Sepang. So recently, I'd decided to pamper it a 'lil by running around to complete a few outstanding tasks.

The morning started off with body work to adjust both the passenger side doors due to some careless driving by the previous owner. This was done very quickly by Ah Boon, my panel-working specialist :P

After that, I decided to resolve the brakes issue by fully servicing the entire brake system. So I made a few calls to a few BCM fellows to arrange the work to be done, and some friends of mine to get a hold of some steel braided brake hoses for my Silver Banana as reward for the good work she's done at Sepang! I made calls all over Pg and found two places to keep stock for Perdana and decided to get those from my long time exhaust fabricator, Soon Yee exhaust located at Paya Terubong (near the Permata sports complex). I got a set of Improve stainless steel braided brake hoses for RM200+

I immediately rushed over to meet with BCM Hush Puppy as I was running late. As I was approaching the Penang Bridge, who else to call but BCM Hush Puppy to tell me he'll be running a little late as he's still in Kulim resolving another car's issues. So I called up BCM 003 to meet up for a "parts run" to get the service kit and brake fluid.


We then met up with BCM Hush Puppy at his workshop to service my brakes. We worked through the entire evening and completed everything close to 1a.m. due to a great deal of distractions like chatting and doing stupid stuff just for kicks.

Here are a few pictures of the new SS braided brake hoses installed and the old set of hoses lying on the discs. Notice the difference in diameter, which will affect the pressure applied to the caliper's pistons, and how SHINY it looks!


These are the old set of original brake hoses and Bendix brake pads after a round of Sepang Open Track Day :) The hoses are swollen and the pads have been worn shiny. At closer inspection, the pads' resin (the stuff that holds the abrasive material together) was heated so much that its dissipated! Kesian, those were super nice pads.



BCM Hush Puppy decided to service the entire brake system instead so he had gone and thoroughly cleaned the master pump of all gunk and grime, then reinstalled all the bushes and valves, and refilled the entire bled system with Bosch Dot 4 brake and clutch fluid. Nice :)

Look at how clean it is from the top.

As I had not updated these items, I've also replace the stock slinky springs with these fatty Apex units for a more controlled ride at highway speeds. These springs are just the best units to try out for road use. It's stiffer rate is excellent for dents and potholes (you won't feel a thing) but a little too softly sprung for bumps. Here are a couple of pictures of the Apex springs... Pardon the dirt!

Here's a little bonus material for everyone to ponder upon. Some call it 4-throttle (for the obvious reasaons) and some call it ITBs (Independant Throttle Bodies)... And this set isn't for any ol' Toyota, it's for the Honda's screamer of an NA... These beaut units are for the B16A!!!

- B16A ITB pictures courtesy of BCM 003