Apprehensible anxiety and amiable angst

I'm hyped for the coming road trip tomorrow... It's always exciting going out in groups and visiting hometowns of the company we keep and getting to know their local fare. Awesome... This time we, the Northern Touge group, will be visiting Cameron Highlands (first time for me) and having a weekend vacation there. We hope to visit members' hometowns and to check out the roads along the way.

This'll be the first time Silver would be up to such a high altitude.

I'm feeling so anxious and pumped or this trip... Can't wait to start taking pics of the trip :)

Northern Touge's Weekend Away

Hey there readers... The Northern Touge crew will be headed out of Penang to take in the sights in other states not to mention to venture in a couple of outstation touge routes that we have yet to explore.

It'll be two days away with a friendly convoy of buddies... But locations are as yet unconfirmed. That's the fun ain't it? Having unplanned and impulsive touge sessions! Sweet!

I can't wait to end this week of work and start packing for my weekend away! I'd love to call it DILYSI but EJ's taken that :P

Cheers!

Of weekends past

I know.. I know.. I've been neglecting my blog again, BUT with fair reason! The past couple of weeks have been fun filled with activties and charities that I lost track of time. Let's flashback to two weeks ago...

I came home from a terrible day at the office to a comforting home made dinner of "bak chang" which are rice dumplings filled with a variety of savory items. What makes this special is that my grandaunt made them and there's no other taste like the taste we grew up with aye?
I then dropped by Hyper Racing to see Fer (I haven't seen him much since kicked off my current job) for a change in engine lubricant and to finally personally test out the Ultrex Ultimate (red) high temp pads.

These bad boys are the second highest grade in Ultrex's range of brake pads and I have to say kudos to them for an awesome product at VERY competitive prices. The initial bite and progressive feel of the pads are awesome after a very tedious bed in process. Lots of smoke and heat involved... I shan't go into that.

Fast forward to the next morning.. Don't worry... Of course touge sessions were compulsory to test out Ultrex's ultimate street pad (thumbsup).. and I'm sitting under a shroud of trees with my gal waiting for our Pan Mee breakfast. We ordered some starters (nyonya otak-otak and a dish of dumplings)...

Before the main attraction arrived to be deliciously devoured.

You can see from the expression (or lack thereof) how contented she was with the meal :P

The following week was spent with Chew Kongsi members (yes I'm a Chew [surname] and my family is steeped in traditions) performing charity at Relau's old folks' home whilst celebrating a 105yrs old man!!! Imagine that... I misplaced my file and am sorry I can't share his pic :(

We were then off to the Penang Snake Temple (which was my first time there believe it or not) for some sightseeing and fooling around with our reptilian buddies.

That dude actually KISSED a king cobra.... And I had only found out that its called King Cobra because not only is it large in size, it is also immune to other snakes' venom~!!! Awesome innit? After the very chatty fellow's reptilian lovin' the Chews duely adjourned to Balik Pulau for some local Durian at a personal estate. Imagine living here with a personal orchard in your back yard. Awesome!

Soon, Pin, Daniel and myself had an ad hoc (albeit VERY short) touge session before having a drink to finish off my wonderful weekend. Daniel's tires were not so fortunate and we had a keepsake to prove it :P

The usual suspects...

And then some...

Oops... I missed out on my wonderful dinner that my dear girl had prepped for me. She cooked toufu in savory sauce, pan grilled mackerel, daikon radish soup, and some tauge before my touge :P

I went home to my parents' on Sunday and caught a glimpse of my treadmarks on the pavement and thought to myself... I wonder how it'd feel to drive something with tires that would make those wide marks!?!?!?

Monday night was when I finally removed my Federal sponsor sticker (this was the largest one mind you... at 44".. albeit slightly trimed) for a new sponsor.

Hope I kept you, my dear readers, up to date... I'll see you all in the exciting months ahead. Northern Touge is planning a road trip in the coming weeks... Check back for more details!

Cheers and have a wonderful week!

Auto City Carnival (part 1)

Another Sunday afternoon was going to pass me by when Fer called up as he was planning a trip to go see the Auto City Carnival going on at Juru. I took a quick shower and off I went to meet up at Hyper Racing, where Kang's massive Cefiro was waiting to greet me.

We closed up and we were off to visit Soon at his display area. After a tedious search and finally parking Silver, we browsed the gallery a bit on our way to see Soon's display. I came by this curiously low Myvi on classic deep dish wheels... What puzzled me was how the participant managed to raise the car up to change wheel? It was almost scraping the floor it's sitting on!

Then as we proceed to Soon's area, the crowd suddenly got pushy and we were blockaded in a mass of homo sapien barricade. At which point we saw the parade had started, so our group also stopped to stare... At the cars la of course :P

Miss Auto City was on all the open roof cars and waving to all spectators. Photo op!

I couldn't withstand taking a pic of this modded classic. Sweet ride!

Like I sed... Time to stop and stare :P

The make up and fashion beauties were also out for a stroll, showing off their facial fascia and flowing gowns in the evening sun.

The group of us then took a rest at Subway for a hearty meal and some cooling drinks after making our rounds around the galleries. I had my fav... The veggie delight.

Soon then requested that we all take a group photo at his pride and joy... His masterpiece. So we did. And being the cheeky fellow I am, I took a photo of the photographer (Yan Yan) whom was waiting for all of us to get in line and for the crowd to clear.

Soon's other creation was an outrageously kitted classic Fiat which's model eludes me.

Sat Night Fever

Come on one and all, Northern Touge will be having a mass gathering at the previous audio site (the lookout point) at Jalan Tun Sardon from 10p.m. onwards. We'll be gathering for kicks and come about to flaunt what you got! ;)

The location of this event is just turned off the Jalan Paya Terubong hill road onto Jalan Tun Sardon. Go uphill till you reach the peak (mid-hill) and voila! Some Balik Pulau kaki will know it better as Jalan Baru, connecting Balik Pulau to either Paya Terubong or Relau.

Be there or be square!

Han Chiang Open Day - Autokhana

I attended the Han Chiang Open Day Autokhana last weekend and was pleasantly surprised to see so many friends from all over Northern Malaysia coming for this event.
I first met with my buddy Fujiwara from Ipoh in his pristine KE70.

Then with Wan Dreamer in his Datto Even Cushion Hao (aptly named because he does interior restoration) attended in his L2 Kancil.

And of course our local Satria heroes were present such as Ray, Deon, Robert, William, and Alvin (R3). I was away for drinks during some laps, and sadly didn't manage to capture all the runs (but got some blur pics when I eventually ran back).

The hatches proved too hot to handle, but Jackson Foo was the upcoming driver to watch for. He entered the double apex at a 35/40deg and slided his rear all the way out ala rally style!

Not one to be outdone, Unker Pang (in Boon's Putra) came out to show all the young lads how to perform an awesome double handbrake turn.

I then caught a glimpse of VictorGR's previous ride in action in the hands of its new owner Darren. He was still a little hesitant when on the "happy pedal", but give him a little time and I'm sure the 7 will be slippin' and slidin'.

Zechs was there in a monstrous Cefiro A31, and in the spirit of keeping the excitement going, Zechs really pushed the RB to slither his A31 through the cones. The big guy was burnin' some serious rubber~!!! Best performance I say...

The event was so hyped up even a doggie came on the track and did donuts~!

Which Timothy Ketit promptly responded to both the A31 and doggie with an awesome gliding show in his sponsored Silvia S15.

Glad to meet all you buddies out there on that sunny day, and hope to see you all again soon. Cheers!

Ya Would If Ya Could

As I'd promised, further updates are in order after the month long slow down in my blogging. Without further ado, I'll kick off our list of activities that you know ya would if ya could!

Leng got us a sweet deal to celebrate in a VIP room at a friend's joint. The place was huge with awesome facilities. Everyone was hyped up for the celebration... But who's that in the background?
Being the ever dedicated mech and workaholic, Fer was using the free internet access to search out some tech specs whilst we partied outside.

Kai Xing was having a ball on stage along with our dancer for the night...

Mr. Daniel "the horny" Civic!Cake cutting is always warranted no matter the location, and being the dedicated people us Northern Touge kakis are, we even included our sponsors list in this pic.

Leng was our silvertongue for the night... This dude could belt it out all night and still keep his voice! Kudos buddy!

During the CNY holidays, Soon had already opened shop to kit an Innova as his initial customer depsite the festivities.

Beautiful job done... Note the red crackers still on the ground as part of the Chinese festive tradition.

A spoiler was later added to complete the look.

Soon was still doing final checks on fit and finish as we were closing up. Diligence ultimate!

On the fourth day a bunch of us decided to have an auspicious touge + makan2 trip in the afternoon. As usual, we met up at Relau Shell, whom graciously allowed us to park and pose for some pics.

We then pushed off for the first stop at the peak of Jln Tun Sardon where we met up with an old friend from Balik Pulau (Blue KE70) and to get some refreshments and "jeruk" (pickled fruits).

We then traversed Balik Pulau and on to Teluk Bahang, through all the beautiful scenery and ending up at the Tropical Fruit Farm for some ice kacang and rojak. Plus, the scene there was awesome and the atmosphere serene.

After a refreshingly relaxed pit stop, the gang continued downward to the Teluk Bahang dam for a photo op.

It was a bright and sunny day out so I thought WTH, why not take a silhouette pic with all the beaut water and scenery surrounding us.

We ended the trip with Daniel (Civic), Soon (Wira GSR), Ewejin (Satria GSR), and Kenny (Wira 4G91) going for a cooling dip in the beach just down the road. Leng (KE70) and Pin (Wira 4G91) traversing back through the Balik Pulau way, and Fer, Joven (Wira GSR), and myself going for a light dinner before leaving for home.

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An awesome end to an awesome Chinese New Year. I'm now back in the office... So happy working all! Cheers!