An Interesting KL Trip

Although this blog entry is about my KL trip cum retreat (hmmm, I wondering... if this were in a ancient china kind of setting, would it be held up at a mountain of some sort since the word 'retreat' usually refers to some grand master going up a mountain to refine his theory/skills/elixir/whatever?), it wasn't so recent in the sense that it didn't take place this week. Rather, it took place about 2 weeks ago. Anyway, here are some highlights of trip:


A Crappy Subconscious
Yup, this has been a blog title before. But since this title has resurfaced, yup, my crappy subconscious has tried to be funny with me again. While I fell asleep in the bus as it was on its way to KL, it stopped over some place where people could visit the toilet, get tidbits and stuff alike. It was then when I suddenly realised that everyone had left me behind on the bus to get something. Well, I was wondering if I should get down the bus as I felt that I didn't really need to go to the toilet, and that I wasn't hungry or thirsty. After some thought, I decided to take a walk anyway since I've been sitting down for about an hour or so in the bus. It was then that I awoke, only to realise that everyone had left the bus without me when the bus stopped over at some place.

Thought: Hmmm, I wonder what would have happened if I chose not to get down in my dream. And why does my crappy subconscious have to replay reality when it could have simply terminated my sleep mode and hence save me another duplicate decision making process? ... ...


Operation Black Chicken
Primary objective: To blanket party a targeted member.
Secondary objective: To have no casualties. Time: Between 12 midnight to 2 a.m.

Team members: 4
Weapons and payload: 1 blanket, 3 pillows (unlimited ammunition @ 30-60 rpm)

Terrain analysis:
Terrain: The two hotel rooms are connected through a door.
Entrance/Exit: There is no possible/easy entrance or exit out of the two rooms in the event of an engagement.
Lighting: Dark.
Final rendezvous point: Back in our rooms.

Target callsign: Chicken Little
Target state: A seemingly asleep unit.
Enemy support: 1 possible companion.
Enemy armaments: Possibly none.
Threat: Generally unknown, possibly neutral to hostile.

Mission plan: Given a point man, 2 flanks and a rear man, the point man will pie the pathway connecting both rooms to secure the target's location. After that has been done, the entire team will take their positions around the target and initiate the blanket party protocol, pull out of the area and seal the path connecting both rooms.

Mission Debriefing:
Primary objective: Failed
Secondary objective: Failed
Mission overall status: Failed

Debriefing: Upon the point man's insertion into enemy territory (ie. the other room), he spotted an enemy, and the entire team pulled out to prevent detection. However, the enemy came through the doorway linking both rooms and detected the team. Although there was no engagement, the target was being alerted. At this, the team's decision was to immediately strike the target hard and fast. Upon surrounding the target, the target retaliated and hence the blanket party protocol could not be carried out. An initial pillow fight took place between a team member and the target before the rest of the team came to provide assistance. As this led to nowhere, the team decided to abort the mission and to pull out.


Some Interesting Stuff (But Without Pictures)
1. Since I'm not really a shopping kind of person (OK, to be exact, I'm not a shopping person), and I happened to tag along (as always, as usual, and would probably always be) in a shopping centre, well, as usual I would be looking around my surroundings and observing stuff. As I was walking, I noticed something really interesting. Perhaps, it was the uniform for promoters. Or perhaps it was a stack of warnings that was being issued. But, but, when I came out of my rationalization/guessings/theory-formulation/whatever, this was what I realised: A security guard, in his security uniform and cap, was giving shopping pamphlets out to shoppers. Hmmm... perhaps the same occupation differs even in two seemingly similar places of different cultures after all.

2. At Giant supermart, we were shopping for foodstuffs. And somehow I came across a section where a collection of different toys/collectibles... etc. were there. Well, you must be wondering what's so interesting about some collectibles. Do you still remember Mr Ramly's burgers at pasar malams? Well, so great, so phenomenal, so national-pride-stirring was his success that, that... they actually had a set of Ramly's Collectibles (limited edition) up on the shelve!

3. Well, perhaps it was good that I found this out only after the supper that some guys brought back to the hotel room. I was given an account of what was done in preparation for a particular fish. A man was scraping a fish over an old black drain cover (the old kind where 3 thick rounded bars over a drain was its cover). Not many meters away, som e guy poured away used oil into the drain. Ewww... =X


Pictures
Although shots were taken, you wouldn't find me in any of them because, well... (1) A quirky side about me is that I feel that I look weird in pictures (comparatively speaking/typing, with the mirror as a reference). And yup, all pics that I take are a form of an obligation with varying magnitudes. (2) It would be weird with me trying to describe something in a picture with my face beside/in it. That feels like some cheezy advertisement or some role playing, acting, or some pictorial description in some project where one wants to introduce/point to something specifically.

Also, before my trip, my dad told me something like, "Don't need to buy anything back. Whatever you can get from KL you can also get from Singapore". Somehow, this statement wasn't 100% accurate as you would notice later on, though most of it was. Anyway, here are the interesting stuff (to me, that is) that I noticed:

A Christmas Design

Well, the design's red, it has green pine trees, and somehow with those cookies being thickly glued together (yup, they glued those edible-but-seemingly-unappetising cookies, but it's not so clear from here. And they're hollow because someone [not me though] exerted a force/pressure greater than the yield strength of the cookie, and it structurally failed [ie. crumbled] at that particular region) below it, I guess it's a christmas design to give a Christmas mood/feel to the hotel. Hmmm, maybe it's just me, but, the red framed picture somehow interestingly resembled a middle eastern carpet that my dad bought some time ago. Culture does interesting stuff to designs, it seems.

Water, Anyone?

Check this out. If you're thinking that this is merely some mineral water of some sort, think/look again... hey, it's Batik Drinking Water (due to the design on its plastic cover)! Hmmm, does one drink this to gather inspiration for Batik designs, or is this some collected water after a hard day of batik artwork, and somehow it's drinkable? Hey, perhaps I could come up with a christmas/china/construction/lego/prada/whatever drinking water, and enter the bottled water industry somewhere...

Knock, Knock!...

If you thought that this picture was taken to snap memories of one of the hotel rooms that we stayed in, think again. Look closely at the picture. In fact, if you were to look closely enough through the door scope/peephole at that time, you would be able to see the contents of the room. Well, someone (It's someone else in the group, though it's not me again) with itchy hands unscrewed the device and screwed it back the other way round to disturb the poor victims (ie. 2 members in our group. He couldn't possibly pull this stunt without entering the room) in this room.

Erm, Whose Tie Shop Is It?

Well, as usual, I wasn't exactly shopping. As I walked around, I was reading the titles of the shops that I pass by (hmmm, this sounded obvious. How do I read shop titles that I do not pass by? Hey, I could - through the directory. Hmmm, before I digress any further...). Well, this one caught my attention as I was thinking: Is this supposed to be read as my tie shop? If those are my ties, what are they doing there? And why do I have to buy ties that are already mine? On the other hand, if the owner is saying that it's his/her tie shop, does it mean that he/she is selling her ties (ie. 2nd hand goods) and he/she set up a shop to do that?

How Much Is That Chocolate In The Window, Cough, Cough...

Well, the coughing part wasn't exactly referring to a sore throat as a result of eating too much chocolates. When I was at the supermarket, this sight caught my attention. I was thinking, "Hey, what kind of chocolates are those, such that it's actually behind the counter and that one has to ask for assistance to get it. Upon a closer look, hey, those aren't chocs. In fact, they are cigars. Hmmm, perhaps portraying cigars as chocs is one good way to attract chocophilic/chocoholic customers to pick it up?

Make A Guess...

Well, it was lunch at a japanese restaurant and two drinks were ordered. Make a guess as to what my drink was (ie. the drink on the left) =) Well, here's a clue: Both drinks are non-carbonated. Here's another clue: The drink on the right is ice lemon tea. Well, here's a final clue: It's a japanese restaurant. You might be thinking what kind of a clue is "it's a japanese restaurant", but hey, this was what they gave me when I asked for japanese green tea! And if you're wondering what's my problem, take a closer look: There are ice cubes in my green tea. And that was probably the worst green tea I've ever drunk in my life.

I Thought I Saw A...

Initially, I thought I saw a huge span of an advertisement. But when I saw people's heads and torsos popping across (and I do not mean these are decapitated parts floating in mid-air. If that were the case, I would have died of shock or be in danger of a similar fate, much less relate it) the advertisement, I realised: Hey, it's a bridge within the train station!

Transit Links?

Nope, this has got nothing to do with our bus service. Well, notice those links in white? Initially, I had no idea what they represented. But since we needed to travel from the red line to the pink line in order to reach the twin towers through that link, I thought I'd wait and see what that link was. Some thoughts came across my mind: A LRT-like kind of train? An internal shuttle? A monorail? A super long escalator? Well, it turned out to be something quite unexpected: We had to exit the station, walk about 10 over minutes to the next station, buy another ticket and continue taking the train from there. Hmmm... not very exciting huh?

The Dare-dev... (oops, I meant...), The Cicak Man

FYI, cicak means lizard in malay I think. Hmmm, this superhero has an uncanny resemblance to the DareDevil so much so that I almost thought there was a mistake in the title. Well, (1) The costume parts look similar: Their mask look about the same in general, both are totally covered except the eyes and jaw region, both wear some belt of some sort, both are red in colour... etc. (2) Both appear to be superheroes (well, I didn't watch that show [who would, anyway?] but it seemed obvious enough to me). (3) Both have a disability. The Daredevil is blind (Come to think about it, why does the DareDevil bother to pop two holes in his mask when he couldn't see anyway? Was it to protect his identity [so that they do not start arresting and interrogating blind people in the city]?), whereas the Cicak man... well... if you were to observe his mouth, you would notice that it's crooked. So, I guess he might well be hemiplegic (ie. stroke victim), the corresponding disability paralleling the Daredevil's.


Quotable Quotes
Hmmm, come to think about it, surely a quote must quotable, for it to be defined as a quote. Why do they bother to call these quotable quotes in the first place anyway? Oh well, here they are nonetheless:

"Could we keep it in the (hotel room) safe?" - Ivan, whenever someone mentioned if there was any space in [area in hotel room] to contain the [item being mentioned. Examples: guitar, munchable munchies (a known term GC uses to describe his favourite flavour and type of tidbits from Muchy's), drinks... etc.].

"Then could we keep the safe in the fridge?" - GC, so as to ensure that his munchable munchies would still be cold even when in the safe.

"No, then we might be fined for littering." - Kelvin Lim, at the suggestion of smashing Melvin thru the wall to create an opening to link two side-by-side shopping centres so as to reduce the walking distance, and leaving a bloody mess.

"Can you imagine the amount of trouble we would be causing to the cleaners???" - GC, an additional response to the above suggestion.

"Ditto!" - Kelvin Lim, whenever it was his turn to comment during rounds of sharing of answers/opinion.

"I've been dittoed!" - Kelvin Lim, when someone finally dittoed his answer for the first time after his dittoing streaks, and at some other instances.

"Since they have no complaints of fatal accidents so far, it must be safe." - Kelvin Lim, when his opinion was asked regarding some seemingly dangerous activity that we were about to engage in.

"Then he'll be ruthless!" Aaron, when this question was asked: "Can you imagine what would have happened if Boaz didn't marry Ruth?"

Thought: Hmmm, I wonder how exactly a full-strength (in terms of numbers) SIC account of a trip would be like.