A few months back I started my new job in Kuala Lumpur working for an office furniture company in The Gardens and that meant I had to shift all my stuff from Penang to Kuala Lumpur. Imagine that I had so much stuff to shift that I had to make two trips between KL and Penang. I didn’t know I had so much stuff until I actually took these pictures with my Nokia 5800 Xpress Music.

shitload of stuff

It’s really surprising how much junk you can accumulate just in the period of 4 years. I haven’t touched most of the stuff since I moved in. In fact, prior to shifting to my brother’s place I have already cleared up a big pile of unwanted stuff. I think I should learn to be more lean and start thinking before making any big purchases. It really is a headache if you are gona move around alot. Also think of all the things you need to dust and clean every year!

all this in one trip

I can’t thank my brother enough for helping me out with packing and loading the stuff into the car. Without him I wouldn’t have packed all that stuff in my car. He even gave me some tips on taking these pictures on my Nokia 5800 Xpress Music.

thanks bro ;)

The colors in the shots are quite okay to begin with. The Nokia 5800 Xpress Music really is a real good phone with GPS, Wi-fi and all but the camera falls a little short. Even at 3.2 megapixels the clarity of the picture and the details are at loss. Luckily after some tweaking in the options menu, the shots turned out okay. A comment from my brother was that the quality of a picture does not depend solely on the amount of megapixels but rather on the sensor of the camera itself. You can have a whopping 8.1 megapixel camera but if the sensor is crap you’ll end up with a large picture with tonnes of crap.

On one of the trips back to Penang, I stopped by Ipoh for the night and had some snow beer with Stan. Somehow it just tastes better in Ipoh. The ones in Church Street Pub, Penang doesn’t cut it, although the ambiance is much better. I’m still searching for it in Kuala Lumpur. If any of you know where I can get my hands on it, do let me know and I’ll buy you one as a treat.

The following morning, breakfast was dim sum at the new Fu Shan ‘hotel’. The owners of Fu Shan practically knocked down a row of old shops and constructed a hotel-like building reminisce of old Shanghai and my God it was packed! It took us nearly half an hour before getting a table. As usual the food was superb and everthing you can expect from the legendary Fu Shan. The dim sum I liked especially were the steamed pork ribs (pai guat) and also the tenderloin in fermented beancurd bun (lam yu pau).

succulent steamed pork ribs

One thing about Fu Shan is that their dim sum serving size is just nice. Some of the dim sum restaurants have portions which are either too large or too small. Also the dim sum came hot and fresh in bamboo steamers! Nowadays, many dim sum restaurants opt for the stainless steel steamers as they are much easier to clean. Somehow or rather, dim sum served in bamboo steamers always taste much nicer! I guess it helps to lock in the moisture and the fragrance from the bamboo makes it even more delicious!

gebu-gebu pork belly in fermented beancurd bun

I managed to tag the location of the new Fu Shan dim sum ‘hotel’ with the built-in GPS. The coordinates are 4°35′ 48.08″ N, 101° 5′ 9.99″ E. I didn’t manage to tag the snow beer place though but don’t worry I’m sure I’ll visit again so look out for more information next time.

Starting work in the Gardens was a completely different experience. The office is neat and fashionable – minimalistic I guess :) There is no gaudy colored furniture, no constricting cubicles. The moment you step into the office you feel that you have escalated to office heaven. The one I posted below with the potted plants is from the office in Puchong. Nice eh?

anyone for some sun?

One day while travelling to work, I tried a backroad which my housemate GUARANTEED will get me to work much faster and with less traffic jam. I took his advice and found that the route was much more pleasant to drive – until I got lost and stuck all the way to Jalan Tun Razak. I was actually waiting for the sign to exit at Kuchai Lama (this was back when I was still staying in Puchong) but none showed up and I ended up heading all the way to the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

I have had it with getting lost in Kuala Lumpur and finally after much contemplation and delay I bought myself this phone – the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music. Paired with my good buddy GARMIN, I never got lost again ;) Okay, okay I got lost ONE more time but that was a mistake interpreting the directions – I actually exited one junction earlier and ended up in Putrajaya. Since then the GPS has helped guide me to new places like Sentul and Selayang. I’m really glad I bought this phone ;)

a view of the city from my desk

Beginning my new life in Kuala Lumpur was not what I had planned on earlier. Although I wanted to come to Kuala Lumpur ever since I started to work in Penang, nothing seemed to go the way I wanted it. Four years later, I appplied for this job and things just fell into place and before I knew it I was smack right in the middle of the Klang Valley taking up this job and exploring new opportunities. My dreams of setting up my own real estate empire looks brighter now and it all wouldn’t have been possible if I was not offered this job.  I get to travel back at least once a month now to check on what’s happening back home ant this time the trip only takes 3 hours. Best of all, a long lost love was rekindled and things are going – well let’s just say things are going just the way we like it ;)

a promise of eternity

P/S – All pictures were taken with the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music and edited with Picasa.