2:22pm - 26 August 2007 - 217 views - 3 Comments
Posted in: Daily, Events
The Malaysia International Fireworks Competition (MIFC 2007) is being held in Putrajaya, from 18 August till 2 September, presumably in conjunction with our very own Merdeka celebrations. The participants in the competition are supposedly the best pyrotechnists in their respective countries and the countries involved are Malaysia, Australia, Italy, Japan, Canada and Team Global(?). I had to chance to be there to witness for myself what it is all about, but boy I was disappointed. I went on the 19th, and the team “performing” on that day isn’t actually competing in the competition and thus we were treated with a dismal performance by Team Global (which is then when I found out the word Global is from the company name of the event’s main sponsor).
Then again, I have to thank Ban Soon for giving me a lift all the way to Putrajaya which is quite a distance from my place. It took more than half an hour of rather speedy driving on a rather traffic-free highway, so it really is quite far.
We were there a minute late and the second we parked our car, the fireworks display started. Ban Soon and I had to hurry to the lakeside to get a clear view of it and barely minutes after we set up our cameras (which in my case means groping in the dark looking for a good spot on the ground to leave my camera on) the display ended! We waited for almost half an hour hoping that it was temporarily halted due to the excessive smoke from the fireworks but alas, no signs of continuation. A man who brought his entire family along came by us and started complaining about the miserable performance when we ourselves were already disappointed.
Anyway, I didn’t manage to get good pictures of the fireworks display due to *cough* equipment limitations and even if I did, it would pale in comparison with so many other magnificent pictures taken by real professional. Just google “MIFC” and you’ll see. In any case, if you’d like to see very much more presentable pictures compared to mine, head over to Ban Soon’s photo gallery. Though I did manage to get a not-too-terrible shot of Putrajaya’s Bridge 8.
Surprisingly, I think Akon was in Putrajaya too. I suppose he held a concert there because we could hear the entire thing crystal clear even though we were at least half a kilometer away. They must have a pretty amazing sound system there.
Ban Soon and I left after giving up hope that there’s more fireworks display to come, and we went to the nearby Oldtown Kopitiam where he treated me, again. He insisted that I return the favour only when I have job, something which I’ll be sure to do. We didn’t stay too long because he had work early next morning, so we headed back home after a disappointing night.
Speaking of disappointments, I just had a big one.
And I wonder if it was simply due to my own plain stupidity - for being too naive and gullible. Perhaps I was meant to learn this lesson the hard way. This mistake of mine is a costly one. To think that I did a good thing is laughable, now that I look back at it, it’s just plain stupid.
Losing material possessions disappoints me, but losing a friend along with it disappoints me more.
1:18am - 21 August 2007 - 255 views - 6 Comments
Posted in: Events
A few days back, I went to watch the World Badminton Championships in Stadium Putra, Bukit Jalil which happens to be within walking distance from my place. I’m not that big a badminton fan, I just figured that it would be a good experience to witness live badminton at least once (after much prodding from *cough* a hardcore badminton fan). So I chose to go for the quarter and semi-finals, because I wasn’t expecting Malaysia to be playing in the finals… and I was right.
Anyway, I had a hard time taking pictures of all the action and this time I have to blame my hardware, something I never like to do. There wasn’t anything I could do about it as my miserable Olympus mju 410 did not have a quick enough shutter speed no matter what settings I tried. I had no choice but to take pictures of the players when they were standing still, otherwise they would just be a blur.
This was stationed outside the stadium, first time I ever saw something like that. It made me hungry before the games even started. The white bearded man is evil.
I’ve never been to Stadium Putra before, despite the fact that I stay so close to it but everything there felt familiar, because I literally see them everyday (from afar, but still). The games started at exactly the stipulated time, something which you seldom see in Malaysia! In fact I was almost late on the first day because me and my friends weren’t expecting the huge amount of people there. On the second day we knew better so we parked our cars outside of the stadium and walked in. It was a lot quicker and coming out was a lot easier.
The following pictures are not arranged chronologically because I’m too lazy 
Malaysia’s men’s doubles Koo Kien Keat & Tan Boon Heong vs Japan’s Sakamoto Shuichi & Ikeda Shintaro. We lost the match but it was an incredible one. The Japanese played brilliantly and we ended applauding them!
Denmark’s Peter Gade vs Indonesia’s Sony Dwi Kuncoro. Peter Gade wasn’t as good as I expected him to be and lost to Sony in a straight match, and he even got himself a yellow card on the way.
China’s Lin Dan vs China’s Bao Chun Lai. Lin Dan beat Bao easily. In fact he beat everyone else easily and won the Men’s Singles.
Malaysia’s Wong Mew Choo vs China’s Zhu Lin. Mew Choo lost despite putting up a good fight and managed to force a rubber game from a game down. A great effort considering Zhu Lin won the Women’s Singles.
Malaysia’s Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah vs Indonesia’s Kido Markis and Setiawan Hendra. The entire match was riddled with errors from both sides. It wasn’t as exciting to watch as the match between our doubles and the Japanese doubles.
There are far more matches played in the two days - totalling 30 but I wasn’t in much of a mood to take pictures because it was difficult to get a good shot. I had much better luck with my friend’s dSLR but the pictures I took are with him.
Since I couldn’t take much of the action, I took pictures from inside the stadium and stitched them together. It’s a pretty big place, but whether or not it could fit the advertised 16,000 people I’m still not too sure.
It was pretty good fun to be able to experience live badminton, and feeling the energy in the crowd. But then again, I was there to experience first-hand the incivility of some people. Some may call it patriotism, but patriotism or not, they’ve taken their actions too far. If only they’re put in a foreign country with a 5000-strong crowd booing at them for almost no apparent reason besides the fact that they are merely the opponents of the supporting crowd’s team and calling them names with personal insults, maybe they won’t be so retarded anymore.
I don’t usually like big events with massive crowds, nevertheless this time it wasn’t all that bad.
1:21pm - 29 November 2006 - 727 views - 7 Comments
Posted in: Events
Last Sunday, the A1 Grand Prix was held in the Sepang International Circuit. My friend Jia Leong had free tickets for the event, so I thought it’d be a great chance to finally have my first look at our very own world-class (so called) racing circuit. The first thing I found out about SIC was - it’s far. So very far. It took about 40 minutes of not-so-slow drive from my place. Considering there were 4 of us sitting in the back of the car, the 40 minutes turned out to be painfully long
The first things we saw when we reached were lots of Lotus Elise’s. There must have been at least a dozen of them. Too bad there weren’t any Exige’s, I think. (Update: Now I think there were. I think this orange one is an Exige itself)
Orange Elise! Exige!
However, there weren’t much of other things to see besides the Elise’s. Well… can’t expect much from a racing circuit can we?
This is the K1 stand that we were supposed to go to.
K1 Stands. Still sunny
Instead, my friend Jia Leong contacted his friend who had tickets to the Mall Grandstands. (Notice where K1 is. It would have been boring if we were stuck there.)
The Mall Area has the best views of the track
We walked around the Mall Area for some time, scouting for locations with the best view. We decided that the Topaz/Citrine stands had the best coverage we could practically see half of the track from there. However, the Ruby/Garnet stands were also interesting because of the trademark hairpin at Turn 15. So we alternated back and forth whenever we wanted a change of view.
But before that, we had a bad feeling.
Not so sunny anymore
We quickly settled down at the spots we chose. There were already ‘races’ going on before the real A1 race started.
So fast-lah! *sarcasm*
Still not that fast but at least they look cooler than fat Savvy’s and Neo’s
The sky turned darker every minute.
Light vs Dark. Dark is winning. The Force is missing.
The opening ceremony started off with some dance by people dressed in every imaginable cultural dress.
Sakai’s. Literally.
Then the drivers made their grand entrance. My friend suddenly said “why so yellow until look like banana-lah”.
Alex Yoong led the pack.
Right before the race started, it rained heavily. Si beh kek tiok. On the bright side, it wasn’t so hot anymore
A couple of cars actually skidded in the rain during the warm-up session.
Wei How started to munch on his TEN RINGGIT hotdog. Siao. They wouldn’t even let us bring in our water (which I managed to do so :D) and yet they’re trying to bleed our wallet to death.
TEN BUCKS.
The race finally started after a while. Immediately, it’s quite apparent who will win the race. Nico Hülkenberg of Germany led throughout the race and opened a very wide gap from the very beginning. His position was never being challenged, even when it was time for his pitstop.
Nico Hülkenberg of Germany
Our Alex Yoong however, wasn’t doing too well. He started off at 4th position and from then onwards, he was so easily passed by racers from the back as though he was dreaming. He dropped pretty far behind, until he went for his pitstop. He came back with a fresh set of tires and with that, he was finally able to catch up with some of the racers but it was a little too late. He ended the race in 7th position.
The flying banana.
I didn’t mention that sound from the cars were loud… but they weren’t. They were [INSERT EXPLETIVES]-THUNDEROUSLY-DEAFENINGLY-EARSPLITTINGLY LOUD. In a while, things got a little unbearable. I couldn’t take pictures properly because it was just too loud. Wei How then gave me something that saved the day.
They saved my ear drums.
Even with so much tissue stuffed into my ears, the sound was still extremely loud. Albeit it was more bearable after that. At least my hands are free from covering my ears so I could continue taking pictures. Anyhow, once the race was completed, the podium winners were then given their trophy and the usual champagne bath. The media helicopter was flying dangerously low during that time to get a good coverage.
Very nabeh pilot
People started to leave. And there were lots of them. Fortunately the crowd barely filled the grandstands, so there were relatively few people actually. It could have been a lot more. I took the liberty of taking a few more pictures before leaving too. Then it was another long drive home.
And more sore butts.
