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I’m leaving for Calgary in about an hour and then tomorrow I’m off to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. There’s not likely to be much action around here in the meantime.

Update: I’ve got some photos from my trip up at Flickr.

I realize it has been a long time since I’ve posted anything here, but I’ve been busy!

Most recently I’ve found myself down in Mesquite, Nevada getting ready to watch my brother-in-law compete in the World Long Driving Competition.

Today my family and I drove to Las Vegas to take in the sights and sounds of the notorious city. I’d share everything that I did, but you know what they say about “what happens in Vegas…”

If you’re really interested, you can check out and comment on some of my flickr photos from today’s travels.
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A friend of a friend, whom just happens to be a pretty great writer, has recently started a travel blog documenting her travels around the globe. Her latest entry on getting great deals flying is full of good advice.

David Sedaris, author of “Me talk pretty one day”—a book about learning to speak French, shares some tid-bits about life in France in an interview with Franceguide, the official website of France Tourism.

Today I had the chance to go to Channel V with Jon. As I’ve mentioned before Channel V is south-east Asia’s music channel. It would be like going to Much Music headquarters in Canada. We presented the latest changes that GXM has made for channel identification spots. It’s pretty cool stuff and it made me wonder how hard it would be to try and make some channel identification ads for Much Music. I’ll look into it when I get home.

On my way back to the residence I finished Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (audio version). I had heard that it wasn’t as good as Douglas Adams celebrated novel, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, but on the contrary I found it to be just as good and recommend it on the same level.

A Great Queen

I took a ride down south to the ancient city of Malacca this weekend. We left Saturday afternoon and stayed overnight. There are some really beautiful and historic things to see. The city itself is very old and the old churches and mosques seem that much older with their thick stone walls and missing ceilings.

The monument pictured here was constructed on behalf on Queen Victoria. The inscription reads: “Victoria Regina 1837-1901 Erected by the people of Malacca in Memory of a great queen 1904″.

The church on the hill used to have a bell tower to warn the village/city of impending attacks via sea. I believe it was built some time in the 1600’s. It had a tunnel leading to another building on another hill. Here is a panoramic view from inside the church.

Old Portuguese Church

On Sunday we raced back to KL and caught up with the group (we were a little late but luckily they waited for us) and headed up North to see the fireflies. This trip to see the fireflies was already paid for and we had a nice meal before heading out on the river in a really quiet boat. It was quite dark and the fireflies looked a lot like blinking Christmas lights. They congregate around a specific kind of tree and blink in unison. It’s quite something to see. Unfortunately there was no way to photograph them, at least with my camera.

Today at work I helped flesh out the basic script for a corporate video scheduled for shooting in the next couple weeks. I really enjoy working at GXM and am lucky to be able to work here.

I went for a little treat in the Sunway mall yesterday. I was thinking about taking in a movie but instead enjoyed a Maple Walnut and Raspberry Vanilla Sundae at Baskin-Robins instead. Definitely an expensive treat (especially by Malaysian standards) but oh man was it ever delicious.

I almost stepped on a rat on the way home. It startled me, but I’m pretty sure the rat was more scared than I was. He did an instant 180 and slipped back under the fence from whence he came.

Time is going by very quickly now. I’ll be home in 18 more days, I’m both excited and saddened by this fact; I love Malaysia.

Jalan Petaling Street

I shot a few photos on my way to work this morning. This one is of the Jalan Petaling Street sign that marks one of the main roads in Chinatown. At night this place fills up with booths hocking cheap watches, belts, fake cologne, shirts, shoes, and just about anything else that tourists like to buy. I’ve been told not to buy anything from these guys because the shirts fall apart after one wearing and some of the DVD’s don’t actually work, etc. The advice for those that do want to shop here, is to take whatever price they originally give you and try to get the item for half that much.

Today I went to the Cathay Pacific Airline office to see about changing my flights around. That in itself was kind of a tricky operation because I got some conflicting help on the street by a couple of different people that thought they were being helpful. Anyway one of the people that I met on the street wanted to know where I was from and a little bit about me. Normally I would have been very open and chatted it up with the guy but I have heard that it’s a common scam for people to tell you that their daughter is coincidentally returning to the same place that you live, and then they want to take you somewhere to ask questions about what it’s like where you live. Except then when they take you, they may be out to use you in some way. I have no idea if this was a scam or not — the guy seemed friendly enough and there are lots of friendly people here, but I just had a bad feeling about it.

Anyway I rearranged some of my flights and will see if everything goes through tomorrow.

I decided to take a break from the usual foods and go back to something western. I was so hungry I had an entire large Hawaiian Chicken pizza to myself. Yummy.

Thursday, July 10th, 2003 – Early Evening

After deciding to actually go on this crazy trip the day had finally arrived (finally as in it had been almost 3 days since we got the tickets). I was planning to work both my life guarding job and then do 3 hours at the phone survey place. Well as luck would have it Anna-Maria talked me into phoning and getting the whole evening off so that we could just leave and get to Calgary. It was a good thing because it took me about an hour to get everything done I needed to, plus we ran over to Anna’s and then back to pickup some last minute laundry at my house. It was 9:30 by the time we arrived at Wally’s house. We ran out and got some food for Friday and Saturday from the nearby Safeway. Helga set the alarm clock for us and we hit the hay.

Friday, July 11th, 2003 – Early Smearly

I guess somehow the alarm clock was set half hour fast and at 3:30AM the annoying sound of an alarm clock went off, (actually it went on. To say that it went off would be lying. It was definitely on.) Anyway Wally was so kind as to drive us to the airport a little after 4:00AM as planned and then we were really off. After a quick layover in Seattle we arrived in sunny California and the fun began. Hitching a ride on the Disneyland Shuttle it didn’t take more than 45 minutes to be in the park. We bought our tickets and entered the happiest place on earth. It still gives me tingles just thinking about it. We did so much that day, it’s hard to remember all the places we went. Toon-Town to Roger Rabbit’s ride, bought some cotton candy, Splash Mountain, oh and we even went over and checked into our hotel. It was so much fun! Then evening we went into the Haunted Mansion and saw the truly spectactular show, Fantastica! It’s a laser/light/fireworks/live actor/animitronic masterpeice that takes place on Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America. Truly an amazing site to see.

Saturday, July 12th, 2003

We got up early, went and had our complimentary hot breakfast in the train car restaurant next door to our hotel, and then walked over to the Disney Cast Building. I don’t know how nervous Anna was – I know I was nervous for her. I didn’t want to tell her I was nervous for fear that I might throw her off. She however seemed cool as a cucumber. The way the audition works was that everyone was assigned a number, and if when it came time for them to make cuts they read off numbers. If your number was called, that meant you were being cut. She said the highest number she noticed was 139. I left her to audition and hit Disneyland and California Adventure on my own. I remember as a kid, some of my fondest memories of Disneyland were from Tom Sawyer Island. I decided, well I’ll check out the old island and just see what’s over there. On the trip over I saw the character Tom Sawyer chatting it up with some of the other park guests, so when we arrived I followed him and he showed us around the Island. He showed us where Injuin Joe’s Spirit was trapped in a cave and what to do if we see him. He took us to his stash of pirate treasure that he and Huck Finn stole from Captain Hook’s own ship. Apparently Captain Hook has been circling the Island ever since trying to get his treasure back. Tom also took us through his caves up to a lookout fortress where we played “Fox and Rabbits”. It seemed a lot like hid and go seek, but a lot more fun since I was bigger than all the other kids playing. Actually I was on pretty even ground with them in my sandals, plus I wasn’t trying my hardest – didn’t want to look like a psycho. We stopped by the old graveyard, and up into Tom and Huck’s tree house where I learned their secret handshake. We also went down fishing – well attempted to fish, but they didn’t catch anything. They just didn’t have a clue as to how to catch fish. They figured it must have been some bad luck from “signing their names in all them people’s books”. Park guests would come up to them asking for autographs.

Later that day I checked up on Anna-Maria and we went to Taco Bell to get her some supper. She was doing great in her audition and she gave me all the details of her day so far. She had to go back for another couple of hours during which time I went and took in the X-Games at California Adventure.

Sunday, July 13th, 2003 – Call Backs and good news

Anna and I got our free breakfast again this morning and then headed to Disneyland to get in as much fun as we could before her 2:00 call back. We rode the matterhorn, Splash mountain, and California Screamin’ (the sweet rollercoaster they have in California Adventure) as well as the Jungle Cruise and Tarzans Treehouse. I can’t remember all the places we went, but we did a lot. We saw Muppets 3D and the Bug’s Life 3D movie as well. There was the Sword in the Stone Ceremony, not to mention watching all the parades and fireworks that evening. There were so many things we did that day. Anna went back and finished her call back and was offered the job. Whether she takes or not, well I’m not sure what she is going to do. Anyway we hooked up with cousin JP after the fireworks were over and he took us to his place in Fullerton. It’s a really cool place – I especially love the fact that they have an outdoor pool that their landlord maintains for them.

Monday, July 14th, 2003 – From Hollywood and Highland to Home

John Paul took us to Hollywood Blvd. where we checked out the Mann’s Chinese Theatre and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We saw the cement handprints of famous actors from the last century and then took in lunch at Mel’s Diner. What a great day it was. Then it was off to the airport where we flew back to Calgary and slept another night at Wally’s. This time I set the alarm clock myself.

If anything this trip was not only a not a waste of money, it has been quite possibly the best trip I’ve ever been on. Disneyland really is the happiest place on earth. If you don’t believe me, then go check it out yourself, you won’t regret it.