Birthday Me

Behold. I, Robin, the ordinary boy, am now, officially 23 years old. I am old. I feel old. I do not know precisely how to express this, but 23 years of existence does feel like it has been nothing short of forever to me, and the past few years of my life have been crawling so freaking slowly that it felt like they have been more than a decade. Ptttfffffffhhhhh !!!!

This is my first time celebrating my birthday away from home. In a way or two, there are some advantages having my birthday in Perth. One of the obvious reasons is the public holiday (YAY!!) of Boxing Day, which Malaysia has chosen to disregard and crudely replace it by some other useless and meaningless holidays. Having a day off from work for my birthday (or any day off at all) is something I truly appreciate these days.

SARAH SHYING AWAY

I guess I have been away from blogging much more than I would have wanted lately. I have not skimmed through the usual blogs that I usually read, and followed up on comments and updates. Considering the time of year, Christmas, Birthday and the coming New Year, there are loads of heavy thoughts to reflect upon, and the journey of my life so far is indeed, colourful. There is no need to elaborate any further on my thoughts, but somehow it drew me away from blogs. Nevertheless, I shall compose an entry to summarize my walk in 2007 right before the New Year 2008, and this entry would definitely be something worth reading for those of you who do not come here often, but still wish to catch up on most of the happenings in my life.

This birthday has been one of the loneliest I have ever had. Family and relatives are nowhere near, and most of my friends went MIA. Some flew back to their home countries, some went on holiday trips touring God knows where, some were busy working (it’s a freaking holiday for f*** sake) and some were just being plainly invisible. Thankfully there was still a small group of friends who were willing to spend some time to make this simple boy happy on his bithday.

DIM SUM LUNCH

Thanks guys for making my day special.

KANG WEI, SARAH and FIRMAN

JAK YEW and ROBIN

SARAH, who organized the lunch, a little last minute, but everything turned out fantastic !! Thanks so much.

I shall end this entry here, before I shift into emo mode and pour out all my emo stuff here.

For those of you who have not wished me Happy Birthday, do it now !!!

Just Kidding.

A Boy was Born

On Christmas day, a beautiful boy was born two thousand years ago.

His name, was Jesus Christ.

One day after Christmas, an ordinary boy was born 23 years ago.

His name, was Robin.

And he was looking to the sky.

The sky was falling, but no one knows.

WAI-CON 2007

As strange as this sounds, I was there at the WAI-CON Perth 2007. Wai con is something like a convention for a group of anime freaks who think that anime is actually existing in this already twisted reality of ours, and trying to promote the awareness about the anime culture in general. Interestingly, I am not exactly an anime fan, I do watch animes from time to time, and some of them have become my favourite shows, some even become my obsession for certain phases of my oh so dramatic life. But, I do not consider myself a freak, and I somehow have lost touch with the newer generation of animes.

Want proof? I do not watch Naruto. I do not watch Bleach.

I know I have a sad life, please refrain yourself from reminding me that.

KAKASHI HATAKE (NARUTO)

Anyway, thanks to Jon and Charmaine, both friends who involved themselves in the Wai Con Cosplaying competition this year, who also dragged me along to witness and be part of the grand event happening here in Perth. I had no idea it was this grand, until I was there, and boy... I never expected so many people here to be that crazily into anime !! I thought Singaporeans and Malaysians are the freaky ones, but nooooooo, wait till you see what Western Australia has become over the years.

Japanese has their own ways of dominating the world. Seriously there is no more hope left in this world.

ERMM ZELDA??

Though I am no anime freak, but I do think anime/manga is terrificly fun. It is a widespread culture, and wai con is just a way of celebrating the culture openly here.

I brought my camera along in hope of capturing some awesome shots. I was walking around randomly taking pictures of those freaks who dressed themselves up as their favourite anime/manga characters. Though I am not as obsessed as they are, but seeing them being so openly devoted to their favourite anime/manga, and photographing them are something cool, something I think rather complimentary in the sense that they were all prepared to be photographed in public. And heaps of pictures I took from Wai Con.

My focus was the Cosplaying event on Day One, the competition of best costumes being portrayed by real life models presenting on stage.

Unfortunately, my camera is doing very poorly on dark lighting in the auditorium, so you guys will have to excuse the poor picture quality. I could only display a few that I thought did not turn out that bad, and still usable after some light editing. If you were one of the cosplayers on the stage, and you do not appear on this entry, it does not mean I do not love you. The reason would be that the picture turned out so fugly that probably Mr Bean would look much more sexier than you in comparison. Yes, trust me its so bad that you do not want to see some of those handicapped pictures I took.

As I am no longer in touch with the Anime world, I do not recognise many of the Characters.

You Anime Freaks out there, please help me identify them, and if you are one of those cosplayers, please leave a comment !!! I would appreciate that very much, and I will re-edit this entry with your names on the picture titles.

Here Goes.

Starting with my beautiful friends, I think they looked really spendid. First time cosplaying, and they did pretty well. So many people taking their pictures, damned, I was so jealous !!!


CHARMAINE & JON as RIN & ARCHER (FATE/STAY NIGHT)

And of course, my next favourite, and my all time favourite anime character, Kenshin Himura from Rurouni Kenshin... OMG OMG OMG !!!! ok i should stop saying how good Kenshin is because I should be saying Charmaine and Jon are the best or else they would kill me like over and over again


KENSHIN HIMURA (RUROUNI KENSHIN)

The rest of the anime, I am not too sure of their titles. Please help me in the comment section, and I shall change them to suit. For now, I shall name them randomly from what comes to my mind first.

THE GIANT CROSS

FINAL FANTASY??

PHEONIX WRIGHT

TEMARI, GAARA, and KANKURO (NARUTO)

OVAN (.HACK//G.U.)

SORRY, UN-NAMED but the following few look so cool I cant miss you all out....

I had a heck load more of photos actually, but yeah, most of the others did not turn out well. I did enjoy myself tremendously there, watching all those cosplaying, you have to admit most of the costumes look amazingly well crafted and it took huge amount of effort to make all those happen. The dedication and passion in bringing the anime/manga love to real life, was something magnificent to behold. It was well worth spending my whole morning and afternoon on a Saturday there at Wai Con.

Charmaine and Jon have been dragging me to try out on cosplaying, but I did not participate for one apparent reason, if I were to cosplay, I would be cosplaying my favourite character, at least someone I know significantly well, and has deep meaning after watching the respective anime/manga. Sorry guys, I know it was fun, but I just cant do my best if I do not like/or know the character.

Maybe next Wai-Con? You guys should feed me anime soon.

Christmas Dinner

I have been away again for some time from this blog, unintentionally, but only because my life has been superbly hectic lately. I was out almost every night for the past week, farewells, dinners and stuff, and two large events happened on Saturday itself: The Wai-Con 2007 (a MASSIVE Anime Convention) and my Company’s Christmas Dinner. I was out for the whole morning till late afternoon to Wai-Con with some friends who were actively involved in some of the competitions and activities, and rushed back home to make myself beautiful get ready for the much anticipated dinner at night. Boy.. I got out early in the morning, and back home after ungodly 1am at night !! Add sleepless nights prior to Saturday.. I am slowly but surely turning into a cute zombie. Do not even ask why cute.

WINE AND APPETIZER

I had a tough time deciding on which event to blog about first, Wai-Con or the Christmas dinner. Since there are heaps of pictures of Wai-Con that require heavy editing (because I suck at event photography) I think blogging about the dinner seems to be the right choice.


This was my first Christmas/Annual Dinner with the company. It currently has approximately 150 employees in the main office, and there were 170++ attendees during the dinner that night. The dinner was held at AQWA (I have blogged about this place before, click for the link here) and everyone was pretty much hyped up and excited about it. Who would not be? Free food, free drinks, like, drinks and drinks and drinks….

RUTHIE

ROBIN

I slept late the night before the dinner, and woke up really early for the Wai-Con which I have spent almost the whole day there, and rushed frantically to the dinner. The consequence of that, extreme exhaustion and lack of mood for photography. I took no less than 300 pictures for Wai Con, my camera batteries and memories may have outlasted me, but I knew my limits, Hence, I just stuck myself around that night, chilled out, and enjoyed myself with a great company of friends. People always seem extra happy when there is good food and UNLIMITED supply of “drinks” around. I just indulge myself in the good stuff, and thought less about taking pictures. Which was a good thing, since I had less pressure on myself, and a bad thing for you guys, because I have less sexy pictures to display on this entry.

DINING @ AQWA Hillary's Harbor

BEAUTIFUL SUNSET

Since everyone is getting tired of seeing food pictures on my blog, I shall skip that for this entry. The whole setting for the dinner was just fantastic, with 17 tables (10 people sitting on each) and full window views overlooking the ocean, just before the sunset. The dinner took place just as the sun set, creating a very saturated orange cast shining on the whole dining hall, creating a very unique mood for the dinner. This is not something you can easily get everyday, especially for a poor guy like me.


UTSAV AND STEPHEN

ARMIN AND ROBIN

Check out how tall Armin is !!! FREAKY !!


One of the things I was worrying about before going to the dinner was the seating allocation. I was told that we could not sit freely with anyone we want, and the places were already planned for each table. Fortunately, I was seated on a table with some really awesome people that I already know, and thank goodness, the whole night turned out to be fun.

CHILLING OUT AT THE CORRIDOR BEFORE DINNER

AT THE DINNER....

So this is Christmas, and it was a wonderful dinner, with terrific people. It was more fun that I have expected it to be. Towards late night, almost half of the people were either tipsy or dropped motionless on the floor due to alcohol overload. What a beautiful way to obtain happiness. Somehow, there was that Christmas feeling inside the whole celebration. That feeling, is something new to me, and something I have not experienced before.

This is the first year of me celebrating Christmas away from my hometown. I have thought that things would get really depressing when friends whom I usually hang out with left Perth to their respective hometowns for the holidays. I hate spending Christmas alone. But hey, having this dinner, somehow I felt that the celebration of Christmas in Perth could never be any less grander than any celebrations in Malaysia. People here regard Christmas very highly, and having the opportunity here to witness, and more importantly to be part of the celebration, is something truly precious.

I shall do my best to document and publish this experience here in my blog.

What Does ADIDAS Mean?

I was on my way back from Fremantle on a train... and I saw this really cool Aussie boy with a really cool ADIDAS backpack...

ADIDAS

So.... ADIDAS Means...



All Day I Dream About SEX Skating

You just gotta love them Aussie kids somehow.

Christmas Pageant 2007

It is that time of the year again, when Santa Claus dresses up in ridiculously red costume and travels all around the world to torment children with false hopes of gifts and presents. Goodness, how the world has twisted the simple and astounding meaning of what CHRISTmas is supposed to be: the birth of Christ.

Nevertheless, the overly commercialised and hyped up version was the part where all the kids were looking forward to. It does not matter if Santa does not exist. It does not matter if fake Santas make appearances at shopping malls to molest the kids when they sit on their laps. It does not matter at all even if its burning hot (think desert, THINK) here in Perth around the end of the year, a summer Christmas we have here. Snow white my A**.

PERTH STREETS @ 6PM

The joy and love of Christmas must he shared, whichever version you choose, for the reason of CHRIST, or for the reason of sole holiday-jolly-mood celebration only, or the fusion of both which I have been awkwardly practising over the years, it is the time to bring together family and friends.

This is my first time celebrating Christmas away from home.

This is also the first time I had the opportunity to witness how grand the celebration of Christmas is here in Aussie, and how much it means for the people here. There is an annual event, a city wide parade held just for the theme of Christmas, and it is considered one of the most prestigious parades in the southern hemisphere of the globe. Since I am here for the end of the year, I made it to the Perth Christmas Pageant 2007 last night.

It was a crazy sight, to say the least. As early as 6pm, the streets of CBD Perth were already jammed, not with usual traffic, but with human beings from God know where !!! Seriously, they flood the streets like Jennifer Love Hewwitt will walk along naked..... I have never seen Perth to be so alive before. I never thought people would regard tha parade so highly !! The show started at 830pm, but at 6pm, the place was already packed. Imagine... how worse it would have been later.

And so the parade started.


THE MASK

Ooh gosh, the mask is surely a classic.


MCDONALDS....

This was definitely the favourite for the kids, they were screaming "RONALD RONALD I AM HUNGRYYYYYYY"..... Boy, you gotta love the Aussie kids.


ERMM.. GIRLS IN PINK?

There are many groups of people, parading, but I have no idea who they were, LOL, just snapping away.

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN

Man, this has got to be the BEST show ever on the parade !!! I mean, look at the car, its sooooooo.. SIMPLE and full of... NEWSPAPER !!!! Yeah, West Australian is a Newspaper of course, so, they just, well, decorated their display with.... newspapers?? ahhahahaha... Man, you gotta love them.


BALLS.. BALLS BALLS...

This cart is full of giant balls, all kinds of balls. Do you love balls? I know I do.


CASTLE AND DRAGON

Hmmm... Fantasy of Christmas?? Hmmm...


LITTLE GIRLS IN GLOSSY GREEN???

Another one of those groups I had no idea who they were. But I do love the glossy shine from their costume. Ok that sounds wrong somehow... but yeah...


MONSTER IN RED???

This guy sure looked scary somehow, but in some odd reasons the kids love him. Aussie kids are weird.


CHICKEN TREAT

If you are not in Aus, or never been here, you would not know what Chicken Treat is. Its a famous food chain serving chicken based dishes, similar to KFC, and quite well received here locally. LIke McDonalds, the kids screamed "WE ARE HUNGRYYYYYYY !!!!"....
It was such an amazing sight... the kids were so interactive with the performers and paraders. Something Kuching kids are seriously lacking of.


HAPPY FEET

OOhhhhh.. the foot tapping and dancing around... I found myself cheering for him too !!! Strange, I know !!


PIRATES

Aaahhhh.. too bad not one dressed up like Jack Sparrow, LOL.. would have been awesome having him on that ship.


CINDERELLA CHRISTMAS??

Hmmm, im not sure if it is cinderella, but it does look like it.


Hmmm... FROM THAI??

I am not entirely sure, I could be wrong, but I have a strong feeling these paraders are from Thai. Chanting and dancing in their traditional glory, it was quite a spectacular display.


ALADDIN LAMP

Man, this aladdin genie lamp was hosted by Lottery West.. check out the pile of fake gold and treasures at the bottom, it says a lot about the LotteryWest company eh? Pfffffffttt

SEXY SAILORS

Girls would melt in the sight of them.

Hmmm JAP/KOREAN?

I really cant tell.. maybe Chinese?


THOMAS

Ohhh, everyone loves Thomas !!!!



The whole parade lasted for a little more than one hour, circling the streets of Perth CBD. This is the grandest parade I have been to so far, and boy, I really did enjoy myself. Of course there were so many other more displays and shows which were not included in the pictures here, which was only because all the other pictures turned out too blurry to be usable.

Wondering why Santa? Well, he appeared last, and his picture was so blur that you will not be able to tell if he was not Michael Jackson in red. Santa is boring anyway, so yeah.


This has been a new experience for me. crowd cheering and screaming and gosh, smiles everywhere. Laughter and joy immensely spread and shared amongst everyone. This is truly a sight of Christmas, and what it is supposed to be. I am just disappointed that it was not received in such similar manner back in Kuching.

And what is with people who go to pubs and clubs and do countdowns on Christmas Eve?? Geeezzzzzzzzz !!!!!


Now I am in Christmas mode already.

Ho ho ho..... only roughly 2 weeks till Christmas... Oh Joy !!!