Chinese New Year is approaching soon and I’ve been having dilemma whether I should leave my Smarty at home or bring home back to hometown or leave him at the vet. It would be trouble to bring Smarty along because I’ll be staying in the hotel when I’m back in my hometown and most of the hotel does not allow pets in their premises.

If you’re facing the same situation as me, you should check out OfficialPetHotels.com. There you can find a list of over 10,000 top travel destinations with Pet Friendly Hotels. Now you can book a pet friendly hotel directly from their website without having the need to leave your best friend at home when you travel!

At OfficialPetHotels.com, you can also find a list of useful tips for traveling with pets: -

• Before leaving, check to make sure the hotel accepts pets. And check either our on-line advertisements or directly with the hotel, to find out any restrictions, fees, etc.
• Also find Emergency Veterinary Clinics in the area to which you’re headed.
• If the pet travels with you, it will retain a sense of identity. However, pets can become frightened and bolt away from you out of open doors and windows. Keep your pet on a leash when outside your car or hotel.
• Occasionally traveling can upset your pet’s stomach. Take along ice cubes, which are easier on your pet than large amounts of water. It is recommended that you keep feeding to a minimum during travel. If you are traveling by car, a light meal for your pet two to three hours before you leave is advised. If you are traveling by air, a light meal four to six hours before departure is recommended. Allow small amounts of water periodically in the hours before the trip.
• Whether your pet travels with you or by another means it should wear a special identification tag in addition to its regular one. Write the pet’s name, your name, the person to contact at the destination, their phone number, a destination address, or that of a friend or relative, in case you want to be reached.
• Rabies vaccinations are a must for all travel abroad. Many airlines also require vaccinations. Check with your vet for the complete range of vaccinations required, and of course, check with the airline and country to which you’re heading.
• Check the airline’s requirements to see if your pet can travel in a carrier that can be kept under a seat in the cabin or must travel by air freight.
• Get the pet to the air terminal in time. Get there 45 minutes in advance if the pet is accompanying you. If shipping the pet, get to the flight terminal two hours in advance of your flight.

About two (2) weeks ago, I was working with YOUTH’08 at Cineleisure promoting the event at their registration and information counter. YOUTH’08 Media Preview & Sponsorship Presentation happened to fall on the 15th of January, which is on my birthday and my boss didn’t warn me anything about wearing an Anime outfit till I arrived early for the rehearsal.

The outfit was made by one of the designers who entered last year’s Animax Fashion Ability competition. When I saw the outfit, I wasn’t excited at all. It was one of the outfits that I didn’t fancy at the show. Boss, how could you do this to me?!?!

My boss didn’t know that that day was my birthday till I mentioned “So I guess this gonna be my birthday suit, eh?”. LOL. Well, thanks boss. On that day, I wasn’t prepared and came in my usual shoes and I had to borrow hills from colleagues which didn’t really fit. Haha…

And William, who came all the way from Kajang to Cineleisure to see me, gave me a muffin for birthday. Thank you so much!

I actually added the candles and took the pics myself. LOL. Haha…

Later that night, Alex and my other colleagues celebrated my birthday after work at Secret Recipe.

And not forgetting those who send me greetings through smses and sang me birthday songs over the phone. Thank you all so much.

PS: My boss asked me why did I work on my birthday and I told him “Work is work. Doesn’t mean you don’t have to work on your birthday“.

** Last 4 photos courtesy of Alex.

I started wearing glasses when I was really young due to short sighted and as the years goes by my power increases and every now and then I had to change a new pair of glasses. We all know that to own a pair of glasses is not cheap, it would cost at least RM100 and above depending on the brand of the frame as well as the type of lens. At the same time, I’m also wearing contact lenses on daily basic. Wow! Imagine the amount of money I had to spend on glasses alone?

But now, I’ve found a website called ZenniOptical.com that sells stylist prescription glasses online! Zenni Optical: Sell Rx Glasses $8 with case! How cool can that be? At ZenniOptical.com you will be able to find a huge selection of frames, with single vision lens, sunsensor (potochromic) lens, tinted sunglasses lens, bifocal lens and progressive lens. The Secret to Zenni’s Low Prices is that they sell only their own manufactured frames direct to the customer, with no middlemen and virtually no advertising budget.

Now everyone can own a pair of glasses at a very low price from Zenni!

Three (3) weekends ago, I was invited to watch Jarum Halus with the New Community members along with Kenny Sia and Christien New himself. It was a pretty late minute thing and Christien actually told me about it the date before and I had to make the toughest decision and decided to skip work to join them for movie.

I’m not a critic whatsoever but here is my honest point of view on Jarum Halus…

Jarum Halus is a local production and I must say that they have done a good job in terms of story board and dialogs. The cinematography was good; it did not look amateur work.Throughout the whole movie, I was really frustrated that why couldn’t Daniel (Christien New) and Mona (Juliana Ibrahim) discuss about the problem they had instead they had to live in a lie which it didn’t even exist.

Overall, I must say it was pretty good coming from a local production. Good job, Mark! I managed to meet Mark in person after the movie. He’s very young and talented. Not forgetting, Razif Hashim acting was excellent! He really makes you want to kill him at the end of the movie. Haha… Razif was at YOUTH’08 event and I got to meet him in person. Very awesome guy.

MAPCU Education Fair
Four (4) weekends ago, I helped out at MAPCU Education fair which was held at Midvalley Megamall. Surprisingly the crowd was lesser than we expected especially for a huge shopping mall. Probably due to lack of advertising or most of them school leavers may have already enrolled in a college/universities or they may have gone for National Service training.

The Star Education Fair
While The Star Education Fair that was held three (1) weeks ago at KL Convention Center had better crowd compared to MAPCU. Well, The Star is known for having big events. The whole fair occupied four (4) halls and as usual, APIIT/UCTI also occupied fourteen (14) booths.

And during the education fair, The Otomofic College (TOC) had Alex Yoong, Hannah Tan and some gorgeous models standing at their booths promoting their courses. Maybe APIIT/UCTI should hire celebrities like Bill Gates to come too!

I thought Italian products are hard to find when I got back from Italy in 2004. But now, I’ve found some of my favourite product over here. And obviously it is more expensive to buy here since it’s imported.

This is what I eat for breakfast back in Italy - biscuits with milk.

And not forgetting panettone for Christmas and New Year! This small one already cost more than RM10.

And not forgetting panettone (pronounce as pa-nit-ton) for Christmas and New Year! Panettone is a typical bread of Milan. This small one already cost more than RM10.

But in Italy, you can find lots and lots of it. And I mean loooooooooots of it. Panettone comes in all kind sizes and favour and it is really cheap to get at Italy.

Check out the recipe for panettone here.

Here are some of the activities took place at YOUTH’08.

The Creative Youth Designer Community corner

Celebrity Secrets

Battle of the Bands

Graffiti Write It Out Loud

Performance

And of course, Nuffang’s Traffic Jam!!!!!!!!!!

Don’t forget to vote for me at Traffic Jam corner ya. See you there!

Date: 18-20 Jan 2008
Venue: Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), K.L.
* Free Admission

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, it means you haven’t visit YouthMalaysia.com website!

For the last few weeks, few of my friends and went all out to promote the YOUTH’08 event.

A big information and registration booth was also placed at Cineleisure.

And on the 15th of January, there was the media preview and sponsorship presentation.

There will be lots of freebies and prizes to be won on all three (3) days of the event.

Why not come follow the rainbow, who knows where it will lead you. This reminds me of a rainbow fountain that I used to watch in Care Bears.

Come and meet MOJI, an iTalk buddy icon. Isn’t he cute? If you notice, he has four (4) ears.

With iTalk buddy , you will be able to save lots of money on phone calls because iTalk buddy offers the lowest call rates in Malaysia and abroad. Each iTalk buddy phone cards features MOJI and his friends. Don’t they all look adorable?

And that’s not just it.

You may want to check out the latest instant messaging services by iTalk buddy. It has all the features of an instant messenger but event better! It also has a virtual intelligent pet like the one you used to play back then, called tamagotci. Remember that one?

Wanna know what those guys are looking at? Come join us at YOUTH’08! There’s everything for everyone. See you there!

Date: 18-20 Jan 2008
Venue: Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), K.L.
* Free Admission

If you can read this, please visit www.youthmalaysia.com

Want to be a part of this trendsetting event?
Be the first 1000 to sign up for the YOUTH’08 guest list at www.youthmalaysia.com and redeem an exclusive YOUTH’08 package at the VIP counter during the event.

Date: 18-20 Jan 2008
Venue: Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), K.L.
* Free Admission

This was taken 710 meter above sea level at Langkawi cable car. More updates coming up soon!

One (1) week ago, my friend, Aaron, threw a birthday party at Duta Vista. I guess it was a pretty last minute booking because he was calling everyone (including myself) and hunting all over to find a place to have his party and managed to find one. Duta Vista is located along Jalan Duta, close to Pusat Bandar Damansara.

What surprises me was that there were penguins at Duta Vista. Wonder how the penguins survive in the hot weather although there is an air conditional in the small room.

There were four (4) of them altogether.

At the party, we were playing games to kill time before the birthday boy cut his birthday cake.

This is the birthday boy, Aaron. He has turned 21 and is official legal. He was already half dunk. He looks damn “hamsap” wei. Well, what’s a party if it’s without alcohol?

He had a jelly cake for birthday. This is how the cake looked like before.

Then some jokers modified the wordings on the cake to this!

He even received 2 (two) undies as present from someone. Haha..

And not forgetting a group photos with the APIITians.
** Click here to read more about Aaron’s 21st birthday party.
** Photos courtesy of Alex.